"Darling!"
"How do you get married in New Jersey?"
He pulled up, dashed and a little disappointed, and laughed nervously.
"Why, you get a license and then—well, almost anybody'll do to tie the knot."
She nodded tensely: "I guess a regular minister will be good enough for us."
"I guess so," he demurred; and with another laugh: "I wasn't thinking serious' about it, but I guess I might's well be married as the way I am."
"Well," she said quietly, "we've got to. It's the only way...."
XXVI
And then, suddenly, the face of life was indescribably changed: Joan Thursday seemed but a memory, a slight and somehow wistful shadow in the shadowed depths of that darkling mirror, yesterday; in her place another creature altogether reigned, the Joan Quard of today, woman, actress, wife; with a gold band round her finger; mature, initiate of mysteries, ripe in wisdom; strong, poised serenely, clear of eye; with added graciousness in her beauty, conscious of added powers over Man, but discreet in their employment.