"Come quite close. I want to
whisper. You needn't be anxious. This chair is strong enough for two."
Gentle as he was in speech and action, there was something irresistible
about him at that moment--something to which Ruth yielded because there
was no alternative. She went to him trembling, and he drew her down
beside him, holding her every instant closer to him.
"Still frightened?" he asked her very tenderly. "Still wantin' to run
away?"
She hid her face against him dumbly. She could not answer him in words.
He went on speaking, softly, soothingly, as if she had been a child.
"People make a ridiculous fuss about gettin' married," he said. "It's
the fashion nowadays to make a sort of Punch and Judy show of it for all
the people one ever met, and a few hundreds besides, to come and gape
at. But you and I are not goin' to do that. We're goin' to show some
sense, and get married on the quiet, in a little village church I know
of; and then we're goin' into retirement for a time, and when we come
out we shall be old married people, and no one will want to pelt us with
shoes and things. Now I've got a weddin'-ring in my pocket, and I hope
it'll fit better than the other. And I've got a special license too.
It's a nice, fine mornin', isn't it? And that's all we want. Let's have
some breakfast, and then go and get married!"
Ruth raised her head with a gasp.
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