CHAPTER XVI
I
As far as Dargaville was concerned, Valerie’s marriage to Dane did not cause anything like the talk her staying on the paper afterwards aroused. It was strange that certain feminist claims were almost unheard of in the country that boasted the most advanced legislation in the world for women. A married woman who had struck disaster in her husband or in her financial affairs could, of course, earn her own living with the understanding and blessing of the community. But that a bride of established position should wish to do so was carrying the theory of independence a little further than it had so far been carried, even in that land. It could only mean, it was thought, that she was eccentric or unduly desirous of attention. Still, though it talked, Dargaville soon calmed down. It was her relatives who continued to be disgusted and indignant, and the more so as she utterly ignored their letters on the subject.
Dane went to Auckland two weeks after Davenport Carr’s visit, and when he returned he waited in the town till Valerie was finished on the paper and took her home with him. He had been away less than a week, but she had missed him, and she was delighted to get away this sizzling February day to the shades of his garden. She could have gone out in his absence, as he had begged her to, but she had not done so. She had walked out to the coast at night instead.
“Did you see dad?” she asked, when they were out in the launch.
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