He behaved, in fact, with decency, and was declared on all
hands to be one of the happiest men imaginable.
Now, however, to change the metaphor, the drop had actually fallen, and
the poor wretch was hanging in mid air along with the creature of his
affections. This creature was now thirty-three years old, and looked it:
she had been weeping, and her eyes and nose were reddish; if "I have done
it and I am alive," was written on Mr Allaby's face after he had thrown
the shoe, "I have done it, and I do not see how I can possibly live much
longer" was upon the face of Theobald as he was being driven along by the
fir Plantation. This, however, was not apparent at the Rectory. All
that could be seen there was the bobbing up and down of the postilion's
head, which just over-topped the hedge by the roadside as he rose in his
stirrups, and the black and yellow body of the carriage.
For some time the pair said nothing: what they must have felt during
their first half hour, the reader must guess, for it is beyond my power
to tell him; at the end of that time, however, Theobald had rummaged up a
conclusion from some odd corner of his soul to the effect that now he and
Christina were married the sooner they fell into their future mutual
relations the better.
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