Both George and Philip and their respective lawyers—­Sir John would have nothing to do with the matter—­did their best to expedite matters, but unfortunately some legal difficulty arose in connection with the transfer, and who can hurry the ponderous and capricious machinery of the law?

At length it became clear to all concerned, except Angela, that it would be impossible for the marriage to take place before the eighth of June, and it also became clear that that was the last possible day on which it could take place.  George begged Philip (by letter, being too ill to come and see him) to allow the marriage to be gone through with at once, and have the business transactions finished afterwards.  But to this Philip would not consent; the title-deeds, he said, must be in his possession before it took place, otherwise he would have no marriage.  George had therefore no option but to accept his terms.

When Angela was told of the date fixed for the ceremony—­she would not allow the word marriage to be mentioned in connection with it—­she at first created considerable consternation by quietly announcing that she would not have it performed until the tenth of June.  At last, however, when matters were growing serious, and when she had treated all the pressure that it was possible to put upon her with quiet indifference—­for, as usual, her father declined to interfere, but contented himself with playing a strictly passive part—­she suddenly of her own mere motion, abolished the difficulty by consenting to appear before the registrar on the eighth of June, as George wished.

Her reasons for having objected to this date in the first instance will be easily guessed.  It was the day before the anniversary of Arthur’s departure, an anniversary which it was her fancy to dedicate solely to his memory.  But as the delay appeared—­though she could not altogether understand why—­to put others to great inconvenience, and as George’s state of health had become such as to render postponement, even for a couple of days of doubtful expediency, and as, moreover, she decided on reflection that she could better give her thoughts to her dead lover when she had gone through with the grim farce that hung over her, she suddenly changed her mind.

Occasionally they brought her documents to sign, and she signed them without a question, but on the whole she treated the affair with considerable apathy, the truth being that it was repugnant to her mind, which she preferred to occupy with other and very different thoughts.  So she let it go.  She knew that she was going to do a thing which was dreadful to her, because she believed it to be her duty, but she comforted herself with the reflection that she was amply secured against all possible contingencies by her previous agreement with George.  Angela’s knowledge of the marriage-law of her country and of what constituted a legal document was not extensive.