The production of the certificate had produced a momentary cessation of hostilities, so to speak, but the old gentleman had by no means said his last word yet, nor Katharine either.
“Go on, my dear,” he resumed gravely. “If I’m to know anything, I should know everything, I suppose.”
“There’s not very much more to tell,” Katharine replied. “I repeat that it was all I could do to persuade Jack to take the step. He resisted to the very last—”
“Hm! He seems to have taken an active part in the proceedings in spite of his resistance—”
“Of course he did, after I had persuaded him to. It was up to that point that he resisted—and even after everything was ready—even this morning, when I met him, he told me that I ought not to have come.”
“His spirit seems to have been willing to have some sense—but the flesh was weak,” observed the old gentleman, without a smile.
“I insist upon taking the whole responsibility,” said Katharine. “It was I who proposed it, and it was I who made him do it.”
“You’re evidently the strong-minded member, my dear.”
“In this—yes. I love him, and I made up my mind that it was right to love him and that I would marry him. Now I have.”
“It is impossible to make a more direct statement of an unpleasant truth. And now that you’ve done it, you mean that your family shall take the consequences—which shows a strong sense of that responsibility you mentioned—and so you’ve come to me. Why didn’t you come to me yesterday? It would have been far more sensible.”