Is he not bound to his wife to keep only unto
her so long as they both shall live, to love and comfort her, honour her,
and keep her in sickness and health?"
"To keep her, yes--but not to keep the Campaigner," cries Mr. Pendennis.
"It is a moral bigamy, Laura, which you advocate, you wicked, immoral
young woman!"
But Laura, though she smiled at this notion, would not be put off from
her first proposition. Turning to Clive, who was with us, talking over
his doleful family circumstances, she took his hand, and pleaded the
cause of right and religion with sweet artless fervour. She agreed with
us that it was a hard lot for Clive to bear. So much the nobler the task,
and the fulfilment of duty in enduring it. A few months too would put an
end to his trials. When his child was born Mrs. Mackenzie would take her
departure. It would even be Clive's duty to separate from her then, as it
now was to humour his wife in her delicate condition, and to soothe the
poor soul who had had a great deal of ill-health, of misfortune, of
domestic calamity to wear and shatter her.
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