2.—­The Lawyer’s Defense.

I wonder whether the foregoing pages of my writing-paper have been torn to pieces and thrown into the waste-paper basket?  You wouldn’t litter the carpet.  No.  I may be torn in pieces, but I do you justice for all that.

What are the objections to the divorced husband and wife becoming husband and wife again?  Mrs. Presty has stated them in the following order.  Am I wrong in assuming that, on this occasion at least, you will agree with Mrs. Presty?

First Objection:  Nobody has ever done such a thing before.

Second Objection:  Penitent or not penitent, Mr. Herbert Linley doesn’t deserve it.

Third Objection:  No respectable person will visit them.

First Reply:  The question is not whether the thing has been done before, but whether the doing of the thing is right in itself There is no clause in the marriage service forbidding a wife to forgive her husband; but there is a direct prohibition to any separation between them.  It is, therefore, not wrong to forgive Mr. Herbert Linley, and it is absolutely right to marry him again.

Second Reply:  When their child brings him home, and takes it for granted that her father and mother should live together, because they are her father and mother, innocent Kitty has appealed from the Law of Divorce to the Law of Nature.  Whether Herbert Linley has deserved it or whether he has not, there he is in the only fit place for him—­and there is an end of the second objection.

Third Reply:  A flat contradiction to the assertion that no respectable person will visit her.  Mrs. Sarrazin will visit her.  Yes, you will, my dear!  Not because I insist upon it—­Do I ever insist on anything?  No; you will act on your own responsibility, out of compassion for a misguided old woman.  Judge for yourself when you read what follows, if Mrs. Presty is not sadly in need of the good example of an ornament to her sex.

The Evil Genius of the family joined us in the cottage parlor when our consultations had come to an end.  I had the honor of communicating the decision at which we had arrived.  Mrs. Presty marched to the door; and, from that commanding position, addressed a few farewell remarks to her daughter.

“I have done with you, Catherine.  You have reached the limits of my maternal endurance at last.  I shall set up my own establishment, and live again—­in memory—­with Mr. Norman and Mr. Presty.  May you be happy.  I don’t anticipate it.”

She left the room—­and came back again for a last word, addressed this time to Randal Linley.

“When you next see your friend, Captain Bennydeck, give him my compliments, Mr. Randal, and say I congratulate him on having been jilted by my daughter.  It would have been a sad thing, indeed, if such a sensible man had married an idiot.  Good-morning.”

She left the room again, and came back again for another last word, addressed on this occasion to me.  Her better nature made an effort to express itself, not altogether without success.