The Evil Genius: A Domestic Story — page 230: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE EVIL GENIUS. 219 I answered that smartly. ‘‘No, Til wait till you are mar- ried.” He took it seriously. ‘‘ Don’t misunderstand me,” he replied. ‘‘ Where there is absolute cruelty, or where there is deliberate de- sertion on the husband’s part, I see the use and the reason for divorce. If the unhappy wife can find an honorable man who will protect her, or an honorable man who will offer her a home, society and law, which are responsible for the institution of marriage, are bound to allow a woman outraged under the shel- ter of their institution to marry again. But where the husband’s fau:t is sexual frailty, I say the English law which refuses di- vorce on that ground alone is right, and the Scotch law which grants itis wrong. Religion, which rightly condemns the sin, pardons it on the condition of true penitence. Why isa wife not to pardon it for the same reason? Why are the livesof a father, a mother, and a child to be wrecked, when those lives may be saved by the exercise of the first of Christian virtues— forgiveness of injuries? In such a case as this I regret that di- vorce exists; and I rejoice when husband and wife and child are one flesh again, reunited by the law of Nature, which is the law of God.” I might have disputed with him; bnt I thought he was right, and I wanted to make sure of the facts. ‘Am | really to understand,” I asked, ‘‘that Mr. Herbert Lin- ley is to be the lady’s husband for the second time ?” ‘‘If there is no lawful objection to it,” Randal said, ‘‘ decid- edly Yes.” My good wife, in all your experience you never saw your hus- band stare as he stared at that moment. Here was a lady divorced from her husband, by her own lawful desire and at her own personal expense, thinking better of it after no very long interval, and proposing to marry the man again. Something to wonder at, surely! How did it end? It ended in my admitting my ignorance as a lawyer, and of- fering my encouragement as a friend. The case being without precedent in my experience, I dropped my professional charac- ter at the outset. Speaking next as a friend, I had only to say to Mrs. Ormond: ‘‘ The law has declared you and Mr. Herbert Linley to be single people. Do what other single people do. Buy a license, and give notice at achurch, and by all means send wedding-cards to the judge who divorced you.” Said; and in another fortnight, done. Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Linley were married again this morning; and Randal and I were the only witnesses present at the ceremony, which was strictly private. 2.—The Lawyer’s Defense. I wonder whether the foregoing pages of my writing-paper have been torn to pieces, and thrown into the waste-paper bas- ket? You wouldn’t litter the carpet. No. I may be torn in pieces, but I do you justice for all that. What are the objections to the divorced husband and wife be- coming husband and wife again? Mrs. Presty has stated them COMICOO® S (C(O) im