Hotchkiss.  I should think it quite likely, but of course I dont know.

Mrs Bridgenorth.  But bless me! marriage is not a question of law, is it?  Have you children no affection for one another?  Surely thats enough?

Hotchkiss.  If it’s enough, why get married?

Mrs Bridgenorth.  Stuff, Sinjon!  Of course people must get married. [Uneasily] Alfred:  why dont you say something?  Surely youre not going to let this go on.

The general.  Ive been waiting for the last twenty minutes, Alfred, in amazement! in stupefaction! to hear you put a stop to all this.  We look to you:  it’s your place, your office, your duty.  Exert your authority at once.

The bishop.  You must give the devil fair play, Boxer.  Until you have heard and weighed his case you have no right to condemn him.  I’m sorry you have been kept waiting twenty minutes; but I myself have waited twenty years for this to happen.  Ive often wrestled with the temptation to pray that it might not happen in my own household.  Perhaps it was a presentiment that it might become a part of our old Bridgenorth burden that made me warn our Governments so earnestly that unless the law of marriage were first made human, it could never become divine.

Mrs Bridgenorth.  Oh, do be sensible about this.  People must get married.  What would you have said if Cecil’s parents had not been married?

The bishop.  They were not, my dear.

Hotchkiss } { Hallo! 
Reginald } { What d’ye mean? 
The general } { Eh? 
Leo } { Not married! 
Mrs. Bridgenorth } { What?

Sykes [rising in amazement] What on earth do you mean, Bishop?  My parents were married.

Hotchkiss.  You cant remember, Cecil.

Sykes.  Well, I never asked my mother to shew me her marriage lines, if thats what you mean.  What man ever has?  I never suspected—­I never knew—­Are you joking?  Or have we all gone mad?

The bishop.  Dont be alarmed, Cecil.  Let me explain.  Your parents were not Anglicans.  You were not, I think, Anglican yourself, until your second year at Oxford.  They were Positivists.  They went through the Positivist ceremony at Newton Hall in Fetter Lane after entering into the civil contract before the Registrar of the West Strand District.  I ask you, as an Anglican Catholic, was that a marriage?

Sykes [overwhelmed] Great Heavens, no! a thousand times, no.  I never thought of that.  I’m a child of sin. [He collapses into the railed chair].