THE WILLING CAPTIVE "And so you were obliged to marry your _bete noire_ after all! My dear, it has been the talk of the town.

Come, sit down, and tell me all about it.

I am burning to hear how it came about." Doris's old friend, Mrs.Lockyard, paused to flick the ash from her cigarette, and to laugh slyly at the girl's face of discomfiture.
Doris also held a cigarette between her fingers, but she was only toying with it restlessly.
"There isn't much to tell," she said.

"We were married by special licence.

I was not obliged to marry him.