“Thank you,” said Zoe. “Women cannot defy the world as men do.” Then, passionately, “Why do you torment me so? why do you urge me so? a poor girl, all alone, and far from advice. What on earth would you have me do?”
“Secure us against another separation, unite us in bliss forever.”
“And so I would if I could; you know I would. But it is impossible.”
“No, Zoe; it is easy. There are two ways: we can reach Scotland in eight hours; and there, by a simple writing and declaration before witnesses, we are man and wife.”
“A Gretna Green marriage?”
“It is just as much a legal marriage as if a bishop married us at St. Paul's. However, we could follow it up immediately by marriage in a church, either in Scotland or the North of England But there is another way: we can be married at Bagley, any day, before the registrar.”
“Is that a marriage—a real marriage?”
“As real, as legal, as binding as a wedding in St. Paul's.”
“Nobody in this county has ever been married so. I should blush to be seen about after it.”
“Our first happy year would not be passed in this country. We should go abroad for six months.”