As a matter of fact, I more than once suspected
that they were incompatibles, but hoped that they would ultimately
accommodate themselves to each other. If, however, they did not, I
should be confronted with the spectacle of two most excellent people
(apart) being thoroughly unhappy (together) for the remainder of their
lives. I shivered before the prospect, and was on the point of telling
William that I would never advise a union to take place unless there
was perfect understanding and sympathy between a couple, when he spoke
again.
'It's just at the last minute all these doubts have assailed me,' he
explained. 'I didn't realize before how serious a thing marriage
is--how irrevocable.'
In a flash Elizabeth's words came into my mind. I recalled her
references to men who get in a 'funk' and want to stop proceedings on
the eve of the wedding, and then I saw the whole thing. William was
that sort of man. I had an instinctive idea just then that no matter
who he was going to marry he would have come to me at the eleventh hour
with the same bewildered demand for advice.
In that moment I decided to trust to Elizabeth. She seems to have a
rude knowledge of life which is almost uncanny at times, but entirely
convincing. She has, as it were, a way of going to the heart of things
and straightway extracting truth. I felt just then that I could depend
on her judgment.
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