Perhaps there was not
much to ask. But we had no witnesses with whom to rebut Fortescue's
claim. I could not conceive how I could find any such witnesses; but I
had gone to Chicago and left without trying to do so. And neither
Douglas nor Mr. Williams had suggested it.
If some six men and two women were willing to swear that they were
present to hear, and did hear, Zoe and Fortescue pledge themselves to
each other, what could break the evidentiary effect? Fortescue had paid
the expenses of these witnesses to Jacksonville; there was no attempt to
hide that. But why not a formal marriage? They did not wish it that way.
Was not this marriage as valid as any? To be sure. Then the ring! We
made little of a defense. Mr. Brooks seemed overcome by the emphatic
answers. We lost. And Fortescue came into my life as a co-tenant, a
brother-in-law.
Of course I inherited from Zoe too; but here was Fortescue, sharing in
every acre, in every piece of timber in my house. Only a division by a
court could set off to him his share and leave me in individual
possession of mine.
He came to Jacksonville to live. He went into possession of the hut.
Whether I would or no, I had to confer with him about various things,
fences, taxes, road service. He knew nothing of farming. He often came
to ask me what to do, and I could not rebuff him.
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