I instantly tore it open, read it to myself once, then aloud:
"Lady Amelia Roscoe begs to inform her niece that she washes her hands of her. She wishes never to see nor to hear of her again. So far as Lady Amelia Roscoe's consent goes, her niece is at liberty to do what she likes and go where she likes. Any further communication which Lady Amelia's niece may require to make must be addressed to her ladyship's solicitors, Messrs. Fox & Wyndall, Lincoln's Inn Fields."
"Thank Heaven!" I exclaimed, drawing the deepest breath I had ever fetched in my life.
"Now, Herbert, I am at your service," exclaimed Frank.
Grace was crying, and Sophie, giving her husband and me a reassuring look, with sisterly gentleness took my darling's arm, and led her out of the room.
Needless to say that in due course we were married, or rather let me say, re-married. But this said, the brief incident I have endeavoured to relate—the story of the elopement—ends. Down to this present moment of writing, however, I have been unable to find out whether I was or whether I was not legitimately, validly, lawfully, made a husband of by Captain Parsons. I have put the question to solicitors; I have written to shipowners and to shipbrokers, to captains and to mates, to shipping papers, and to a variety of marine authorities, such as dock superintendents, Board of Trade officials, and nautical assessors, but to no purpose. A great many "fancy" that a shipboard marriage is "all right," but nobody is certain. What have the readers of this narrative to say? Is there any one amongst them who can speak with authority? I submit that it is a point which ought to be settled. Legislation should put an end to doubt. Could I have felt sure on the subject, I should have been spared a great deal of anxiety. That marriages have taken place at sea is beyond question; the offspring of these unions must be numerous. Are they legitimate? Many colonials should feel concerned in the question, and I trust yet to receive some definite information on the matter one way or the other.
POSTSCRIPT
Since this story was written, I find that the Rev. Thomas Moore, Rector of All-hallows-the-Great, late Surrogate in the Diocese of Canterbury, in a useful little work on the British and foreign laws of marriage, entitled, "How to be Married,"[[1]] writes of marriages on board merchant vessels, that "There is no statutory provision for these. But the requirements of the Merchant Shipping Act, 1854, Section 282, providing for their proper registration in the Diocesan Registry of London, assume that they may take place." In a letter addressed to the author, Mr. Moore says: "I may say, that to constitute the validity of such marriages, which I take for granted would be marriages of emergency, the presence of a clergyman or minister would not be required, and is not contemplated. It would be sufficient that the captain of the ship officiated and made a record of the marriage. He ought, however, to report it to the proper authority as soon as possible at the end of the voyage. Such marriages, though legal, are rare."