The book she had mentally marked down that morning was found by her in a moment; but instead of looking at it there she took it to her boudoir. It was possible that Wantele--Wantele who had been so rude and unkind to her this afternoon--might, like herself, feel wakeful, and come down to the library.
With the heavy old law book in her arms, she made her way through the now dark corridor which ran the whole length of Rede Place till she reached her own sitting-room, and there, before turning up the light, she locked the door.
Then she sat down, and drawing forward a little table she spread the book out open before her.
The dying wood fire suddenly burst into flame; Athena looked round her. She wondered if she would ever have so pretty a room again.
There was no hurry; she knew all that it was really necessary for her to know, thanks to Maud Stanwood's idle words.
Maud Stanwood? What would Maud Stanwood say of her when she heard what Mrs. Maule was about to do? So wondering, Athena suddenly made up her mind that there would be no necessity for her to go on knowing that lady. A woman who talked as Maud Stanwood talked would be no friend for General Lingard's wife!
The important thing--the one thing she must find out, and that this book would doubtless tell her--was how long a period must elapse after the dissolution of her marriage to Richard Maule before any second marriage contracted by her would be legal. She was aware that after a divorce a full six months must elapse between the Nisi and the Absolute; also that it was actually left to the good feeling of the offended party--that was very unfair--as to whether the decree should be made absolute at all.
Athena felt a tremor of fear. It would indeed be an awful thing if she put it into Richard's power to leave her in the disagreeable, the ridiculous, position of being neither married nor single.
But thanks to the excellent index of this useful work on the marriage laws of England, it only took Mrs. Maule a very few moments to discover that in this important matter her fear was quite groundless. Once judgment was given--once, that is, a marriage was dissolved--there was no impediment to an immediate remarriage on the part of the injured party.