“That’s the way to put it--I don’t care a tinker’s curse what anybody says; and take my word for it, a good deal will be said. Oh, I know the cant. I know the high-hand inconsistency of the Church. But we’ll have the sympathy of every man and woman who can think for themselves without the need of a Church handbook on thinking. Yes, I’m pretty sure that we shall have all the minds on our side if we have the ranters and the canters against us. At any rate, whether we have them with us or not, you’ll have me with you and I’ll have you with me. That’s all that matters to us.” “That’s all that matters to us. Only--oh, Jack, your mother--your poor mother!” He was silent for a long time. “Look here, Priscilla,” he said at last; “when a man marries a wife he throws in his lot with her and he should let no consideration of family or friendship come between him and his wife--that’s my creed. But we can still hope that my mother will see with our eyes.” She shook her head. “I have no hope in that way,” she said. “She will go away from us when we tell her what we have resolved upon. But she is so good--so full of tenderness and love for us both. Oh, Jack, I would do anything--anything in the world rather than wound her.” He saw at once that her feeling for his mother would make her relinquish her purpose. He would need to be firm. “Look here, my girl,” he said; “there is only one course for us to pursue. We have no alternative. You spoke the truth just now when you said that it would not do for us to deviate in the least from the straight track in this business. The moment we do so we’re lost. That’s all I have to say. Change your dress and follow me downstairs. I’m hungry and thirsty. You must be the same. It will not do for us to let ourselves run down just when we most need to keep ourselves up. We’ll have the devil and all his angels to fight with before we’re done with this affair.” “I don’t mind the devil,” she said, “it’s the angels that I dread--the angels with the haloes of their own embroidering and the self-made wings. Oh, Jack, I wish we could have the angels on our side.” “That’s a woman’s weak point; she would go any distance to get the patronage of an angel.” “Do you remember the day when you called me your good angel, Jack? Alas, alas! Jack!” “I called you that once, my girl, and I’ll call you so again--now. I never felt greater need of you than I do now. I am just starting life, dear, and that is when a chap most needs a good angel to stand by him.” “And for him to stand by. Oh, Jack, if I hadn’t you to stand by me now I would give up the fight. If I had not married you, where should I be when that wretch came and said, ‘I have come for my wife’? You have saved me from that horror, Jack.” “I wish I knew how to keep you from the horror that you have to face, my Priscilla.” “You will learn, Jack, every day you will learn how to do it.”