"O, well, they probably started up from nothing, and are used to it;
they don't know any difference. But for me--a St. Leger! O, John, if
you love me, don't ever mention such a thing again; and if you love me,
John, a half or quarter as I love you, you will go with me to St.
Mark's. I will not go without you, and I shall cry myself into a
dreadful headache, and you can refuse me and see me suffer so when we've
been married but five days! O dear, dear, I thought I was going to marry
a man who would love me so well he would do everything in the world to
please me, and now here it is!" and Juliet fairly shook with sobs.
John Temple was a very matter-of-fact man; quite the reverse of his wife
in every respect. The wonder is how such opposites became attracted. He
understood very little of women's ways, and became fearful that his
young bride was on the borders of distraction. He felt himself justified
in remaining absent from Mass, and as he persevered in his resolution of
not accompanying Juliet to St. Mark's, both remained at home, where more
of clouds than sunshine reigned.
More than once during this scene John Temple was on the point of
yielding. Where was the harm after all? and it would be a pleasure to
gratify Juliet. But he remembered the promise he had made to himself and
his God, that, in marrying a Protestant wife, he would still keep aloof
from the Protestant Church. This promise kept him true. If once would
have answered, he might have gone once; but after that the battle would
have to be fought over again; the victory might be made complete in the
beginning.
The next day, while Mr. Temple was at his place of business, Juliet,
feeling herself very much injured, visited her rector, Dr. Browne. She
told him the whole story in her tragic way, including the insulting
proposal for her to go to St. Patrick's. She wished Dr. Browne would
contrive some way by which her her husband might be brought to terms.
Dr. Browne smiled.
"You will remember, Mrs. Temple," he said, "that your friends all warned
you in this matter of your marriage. It is so impossible for a Catholic
to become anything else, that it has become an adage, 'Once a Catholic,
always a Catholic.' Do not expect your husband to change; the leopard
might as well be expected to change his spots. Ephraim is joined to his
idols; let him alone. Let him go to his church, and you to yours. It is
not pleasant, but must be accepted as one of the conditions of your
marriage. Neither let it create trouble between you. Avoid religious
subjects. But as he will undoubtedly cling to his Church, so must you to
yours. Do not be prevailed upon to go with him; remain upon that point
firm as himself."
Thereafter Juliet concluded she had better make the best of it, and
by-and-bye it had ceased to become the "skeleton in the house," as at
first.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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