In this conversation it seemed quite easy for the two men to arrange a simple, quiet marriage to take place in a week or ten days, but when Faith and Mrs. Annis were taken into the consultation, the simple, quiet marriage became a rather difficult problem. Faith said that she would not leave her father until she had packed her father’s books and seen all their personal property comfortably arranged in the preacher’s house in Bradford. Then some allusion was made to her wardrobe, and the men remembered the wedding dress and other incidentals. Mistress Annis found it hard to believe that the squire really expected such a wedding as he and Mr. Foster actually planned.
“Why-a, Antony!” she said, “the dear girl must have a lot to do both for her father and hersen. A marriage within two or three months is quite impossible. Of course she must see Mr. Foster settled in his new home and also find a proper person to look after his comfort. And after that is done, she will have her wedding dress to order and doubtless many other garments. And where will the wedding ceremony take place?”
“In Bradford, I suppose. Usually the bridegroom goes to his bride’s home for her. I suppose Dick will want to do so.”
“He cannot do so in this case. The future squire of Annis must be married in Annis church.”
“Perhaps Mr. Foster might——”
“Antony Annis! What you are going to say is impossible! Methodist preachers cannot marry anyone legally. I have known that for years.”
“I think that law has been abrogated. There was a law spoken of that was to repeal all the disqualifications of Dissenters.”
“We cannot have any uncertainties about our son’s marriage. Thou knows that well. And as for any hole-in-a-corner ceremony, it is impossible. We gave our daughter Katherine a proper, public wedding; we must do the same for Dick.”
It is easy under these circumstances to see how two loving, anxious women could impose on themselves extra responsibilities and thus lengthen out the interval of separation for nearly three months. For Faith, when the decision was finally left to her, refused positively to be married from the Hall. Thanking the squire and his wife for their kind and generous intentions, she said without a moment’s hesitation, that “she could not be married to anyone except from her father’s home.”
“It would be a most unkind slight to the best of fathers,” she said. “It would be an insult to the most wise and tender affection any daughter ever received. I am not the least ashamed of my simple home and simple living, and neither father nor myself look on marriage as an occasion for mirth and feasting and social visiting.”