The context involves a woman in love with an abusive man. We are told of this relationship that:
As he drank and was of a violent character, she did not want to marry him, but was willing to live with him without.
- “About Love.” In Anton Chekhov's Selected Stories. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2014.
It seems 'without' is short for 'without marriage'. If so, how can we explain this usage? What warrants the apparent ellipsis here?