And so they went out to get married, the people of the house where she
lodged having no suspicion of anything of the sort. They were only
excited at a "gentleman friend" (a very fine man too) calling on Miss
Smith for the first time since she had come to live in the house. When
she returned, for she did come back alone, there were allusions made to
that outing. She had to take her meals with these rather vulgar people.
The woman of the house, a scraggy, genteel person, tried even to provoke
confidences. Flora's white face with the deep blue eyes did not strike
their hearts as it did the heart of Captain Anthony, as the very face of
the suffering world. Her pained reserve had no power to awe them into
decency.
Well, she returned alone--as in fact might have been expected. After
leaving the Registry Office Flora de Barral and Roderick Anthony had gone
for a walk in a park. It must have been an East-End park but I am not
sure. Anyway that's what they did. It was a sunny day. He said to her:
"Everything I have in the world belongs to you. I have seen to that
without troubling my brother-in-law.
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