An Outback Marriage, page 129 by Andrew Barton (Banjo) Paterson
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lp you. Mick, you go over to the store, and wait till I send for you." And Mick shambled off.
Peggy, still inclined to be defiant, settled herself in her chair. She had battled in North Queensland so long that she neither feared nor respected anybody; but her native shrewdness told her she had all to gain and nothing to lose by doing what her lawyer advised.
"Now, Peggy," he said, "do you want to make a claim against William Grant's estate?"
"Yis."
"On the ground that you're his widow?"
"Yis. I'll tell yer--"
"No, you won't tell me anything. I'll tell you. If you are to have any hope of succeeding in this case, you must furnish me with the name of the priest or parson who married you, the place where you were married, and the date. It must be a real priest or parson, a real place, and a real date. It's no use coming along with a story of a marriage by a parson and you've forgotten his name, at a place you can't remember where it was, and a date that's slipped your memory. You must have a story to tell, and it must hold water. Now, can you tell such a story? Have you got any proofs at all?"
Peggy shifted about uneasily.
"Can I see Mick?" she said.
"No, you can not. You must out with it here and now. Listen to me, Peggy," he went on, sinking his voice suddenly and looking hard at her. "I've got to know all about this. It's no use keeping anything back. Were you ever married to William Grant?"
Peggy dropped her voice too.
"Yis. I was married twenty-five years ago at a place called Pike's pub, out in the Never-never country."
"Who read the service, parson or priest?"
"Neither. A mish'nary. Mish'nary to the blacks."
"Is he alive?"
"No, he died out there. He was sick then, wid the Queensland fever."
"What was his name?"
"Mr. Nettleship."
"Was the marriage ever registered?"
"Sorra one of me knows. He giv us each a bit of paper--our marriage lines. 'Twas written in pencil. He had no ink in