It was unopposed; Christian’s lawyer filed an answer admitting the allegations, which was the only sensible thing available to him.

It took until the following January.

Ten months, for a marriage that never legally existed for a single second.

I gave a deposition in it, in the June, for three hours and forty minutes, and it is the only proceeding in this whole matter in which I was a witness and not a subject, and I would like to record that it was the best day of that year.

The final judgment is two pages.

It declares the marriage void ab initio, restores her former name, and reserves jurisdiction on one narrow financial question that was resolved later by agreement.