o begin by assailing her views on all manner of
things. Religion, for example. Well, I have no religion, that's plain.
I might call myself this or that for the sake of seeming respectable,
but it all comes to the same thing. I don't mind Bella going to church
if she wishes, but I must teach her that there's no merit whatever in
doing so. It isn't an ideal marriage, but perhaps as good as this
imperfect world allows. If I have children, I can then put my
educational theories to the test.'

By way of novel experience, Earwaker, not long after this, converted
his study into a drawing-room, and invited the Jacox family to taste
his tea and cake. With Malkin's assistance, the risky enterprise was
made a great success. When Mrs. Jacox would allow her to be heard,
Bella talked intelligently, and showed eager interest in the details of
literary manufacture.

'O Mr. Earwaker!' cried her mother, when it was time to go. 'What a
delightful afternoon you have given us! We must think of you from now
as one of our very best friends. Mustn't we, Lily?'

But troubles were yet in store. Malkin was strongly opposed to a
religious marriage; he wished the wedding to be at a registrar's
office, and had obtained Bella's consent to this, but Mrs. Jacox would
not hear of such a thing. She wept and bewailed herself. 'How _can_ you
think of being married like a costermonger? O Mr. Malkin, you will
break my heart, indeed you will!' And she wrote an ejaculatory letter
to Earwaker, imploring his intercession. The journalist took his friend
in hand.

'My good fellow, don't make a fool of yourself. Women are born for one
thing only, the Church of England marriage service. How can you seek to
defeat the end of their existence? Give in to the inevitable. Grin and
bear it.'

'I can't! I won't! It shall be a runaway match! I had rather suffer the
rack than go through an ordinary wedding!'

Dire was the conflict. Down at Wrotham there were floods of tears. In
the end, Bella effected a compromise; the marriage was to be at a
church, but in the greatest possible privacy. No carriages, no gala
dresses, no invitations, no wedding feast; the bare indispensable
formalities. And so it came to pass. Earwaker and the girl's governess
were the only strangers present, when, on a morning of June, Malkin and
Bella were declared by the Church to be henceforth one and indivisible.
The bride wore a graceful travelling costume; the bridegroom was in
corresponding a