DEARMAN & MOLLETT

First of all this is an unlikely marriage.  Gerald was very definitely middle class - his grandfathers were both fairly rich men and his father was not poor.  Maud, on the other hand, was the daughter of a humble policeman, now a church verger, whose parents died in the workhouse.  It was not likely that the Molletts approved.  So where did they meet?  Well the possibilities range from Maud’s aunt’s lodging house - maybe Gerald was a friend of one of the lodgers - to the dance halls, the pubs, the streets even.  If Maud was indeed a music-hall artiste as family legend might have it, maybe they met at the stage door.  Or horrible thought - maybe she was a prostitute? Whatever the truth of the matter, let’s romantically assume that Gerald was smitten by her beauty, and fell hopelessly in love, and she - well maybe she loved him too, or maybe she liked him well enough and certainly saw this as an opportunity to better herself.  The fact that they were married in a Registry Office rather than a church and that there were no relatives as witnesses, suggests that this was not a marriage that was approved of by either family, and they were both living at home at the time of marriage, so you would have expected a family member to be there.  There were not even any brothers and sisters present.  It all seems rather secretive and clandestine.  I wonder how long they had known each other before they married?  Did Gerald wait for a few months after his father’s death before going ahead with the marriage?  Had his father forbidden it?  One thing that is sure is that Maud was not pregnant - their first child was born nine months after the marriage, so even if there had been pre-marital sex and she had been pregnant, she would not have known she was, so this would not have been why they married.  So maybe Maud refused her favours unless Gerald married her, which would maker her either a schemer or a modest young lady.  Take your pick.