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
the 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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