"I should mind it very much. In our serious situation, when we have both got to exert our intellects, I wonder you can ask for such a thing!""That's why I asked for it," said the unblushing Allan. "I feel as if it would clear my head.""Oh, if it would clear your head, that's quite another thing! Imust clear your head, of course, at any sacrifice. Only one, mind," she whispered, coquettishly; "and pray be careful of Blackstone, or you'll lose the place."There was a pause in the conversation. Blackstone and the pocket-book both rolled on the ground together.
"If this happens again," said Neelie, picking up the pocket-book, with her eyes and her complexion at their brightest and best, "Ishall sit with my back to you for the rest of the morning. _Will_you go on?"
Allan found his place for the second time, and fell headlong into the bottomless abyss of the English Law.
"Page 280," he began. "Law of husband and wife. Here's a bit Idon't understand, to begin with: 'It may be observed generally that the law considers marriage in the light of a Contract.' What does that mean? I thought a contract was the sort of a thing a builder signs when he promises to have the workmen out of the house in a given time, and when the time comes (as my poor mother used to say) the workmen never go.""Is there nothing about Love?" asked Neelie. "Look a little lower down.""Not a word. He sticks to his confounded 'Contract' all the way through.""Then he's a brute! Go on to something else that's more in our way.""Here's a bit that's more in our way: 'Incapacities. If any persons under legal incapacities come together, it is a meretricious, and not a matrimonial union.' (Blackstone's a good one at long words, isn't he? I wonder what he means by meretricious?) 'The first of these legal disabilities is a prior marriage, and having another husband or wife living--' ""Stop!" said Neelie; "I must make a note of that." She gravely made her first entry on the page headed "Good," as follows: "Ihave no husband, and Allan has no wife. We are both entirely unmarried at the present time.""All right, so far," remarked Allan, looking over her shoulder.
"Go on," said Neelie. "What next?"
" 'The next disability,' " proceeded Allan, " 'is want of age.
The age for consent to matrimony is, fourteen in males, and twelve in females.' Come!" cried Allan, cheerfully, "Blackstone begins early enough, at any rate!"Neelie was too business-like to make any other remark, on her side, than the necessary remark in the pocket-book. She made another entry under the head of "Good": "I am old enough to consent, and so is Allan too. Go on," resumed Neelie, looking over the reader's shoulder. "Never mind all that prosing of Blackstone's, about the husband being of years of discretion, and the wife under twelve. Abominable wretch! the wife under twelve!
Skip to the third incapacity, if there is one."" 'The third incapacity,' " Allan went on, " 'is want of reason.'
"
Neelie immediately made a third entry on the side of "Good":
"Allan and I are both perfectly reasonable. Skip to the next page."Allan skipped. " 'A fourth incapacity is in respect of proximity of relationship.' "A fourth entry followed instantly on the cheering side of the pocket-book: "He loves me, and I love him--without our being in the slightest degree related to each other. Any more?" asked Neelie, tapping her chin impatiently with the end of the pencil.
"Plenty more," rejoined Allan; "all in hieroglyphics. Look here:
'Marriage Acts, 4 Geo. IV., c. 76, and 6 and 7 Will. IV., c. 85(_q_).' Blackstone's intellect seems to be wandering here. Shall we take another skip, and see if he picks himself up again on the next page?""Wait a little," said Neelie; "what's that I see in the middle?"She read for a minute in silence, over Allan's shoulder, and suddenly clasped her hands in despair. "I knew I was right!" she exclaimed. "Oh, heavens, here it is!""Where?" asked Allan. "I see nothing about languishing in prison, and cropping a fellow's hair close to his head, unless it's in the hieroglyphics. Is '4 Geo. IV.' short for 'Lock him up'? and does 'c. 85 (_q_)' mean, 'Send for the hair-cutter'?""Pray be serious," remonstrated Neelie. "We are both sitting on a volcano. There," she said pointing to the place. "Read it! If anything can bring you to a proper sense of our situation, _that_will."
Allan cleared his throat, and Neelie held the point of her pencil ready on the depressing side of the account--otherwise the "Bad"page of the pocket-book.