"John," said my hero, gasping for breath, "are you sure of what you
say--are you quite sure you really married her?"
"Of course I am," said John, "I married her before the registrar at
Letchbury on the 15th of August 1851.
"Give me your arm," said Ernest, "and take me into Piccadilly, and put me
into a cab, and come with me at once, if you can spare time, to Mr
Overton's at the Temple."
CHAPTER LXXVII
I do not think Ernest himself was much more pleased at finding that he
had never been married than I was. To him, however, the shock of
pleasure was positively numbing in its intensity. As he felt his burden
removed, he reeled for the unaccustomed lightness of his movements; his
position was so shattered that his identity seemed to have been shattered
also; he was as one waking up from a horrible nightmare to find himself
safe and sound in bed, but who can hardly even yet believe that the room
is not full of armed men who are about to spring upon him.
"And it is I," he said, "who not an hour ago complained that I was
without hope. It is I, who for weeks have been railing at fortune, and
saying that though she smiled on others she never smiled at me.
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