"In my heart, Richard, there is only room for you. Neil Semple I fear

and dislike."

"They will make you marry him, my darling."

"No; that they can never do."

"But I suffer in the fear. I suffer a thousand deaths. If you were only

my wife, Katherine!"

She blushed divinely. She was kneeling at his side; and she put her arms

around his neck, and laid her face against his. "Only your wife I will

be. That is what I desire also."

"Now, Katherine? This minute, darling? Make me sure of the felicity

you have promised. You have my word of honour, that as Katherine Van

Heemskirk I will not again ask you to come here. But it is past my

impatience to exist, and not see you. Katherine Hyde would have the

right to come."

"Oh, my love, my love!"

"See how I tremble, Katherine. Life scarcely cares to inhabit a body so

weak. If you refuse me, I will let it go. If you refuse me, I shall know

that in your heart you expect to marry Neil Semple,--the savage who has

made me to suffer unspeakable agonies."

"Never will I marry him, Richard,--never, never. My word is true. You

only I will marry."

"Then now, now, Katharine. Here is the ring. Here is the special

license from the governor; my aunt has made him to understand all. The

clergyman and the witnesses are waiting. Some good fortune has dressed

you in bridal beauty. Now, Katherine? Now, now!"

She rose, and stood white and trembling by his dear side,--speechless,

also. To her father and her mother her thoughts fled in a kind of

loving terror. But how could she resist the pleading of one whom she so

tenderly loved, and to whom, in her maiden simplicity, she imagined

herself to be so deeply bounden? That very self-abnegation which forms

so large a portion of a true affection urged her to compliance far more

than love itself. And when Richard ceased to speak, and only besought

her with the unanswerable pathos of his evident suffering for her sake,

she felt the argument to be irresistible.

"Well, my Katherine, will you pity me so far?"

"All you ask, my loved one, I will grant."

"Angel of goodness! Now?"

"At your wish, Richard."

He took her hand in a passion of joy and gratitude, and touched a small

bell. Immediately there was a sudden silence, and then a sudden

movement, in the adjoining room. The next moment a clergyman in

canonical dress came toward them. By his side was Colonel Gordon, and

Mrs. Gordon and Captain Earle followed. If Katherine had then been

sensible of any misgiving or repentant withdrawal, the influences

surrounding her were irresistible. But she had no distinct wish to

resist them. Indeed, Colonel Gordon said afterward to his wife, "he had

never seen a bride look at once so lovely and so happy." The ceremony

was full of solemnity, and of that deepest joy which dims the eyes with

tears, even while it wreathes the lips with smiles. During it, Katherine

knelt by Richard's side; and every eye was fixed upon him, for he was

almost fainting with the fatigue of his emotions; and it was with

fast-receding consciousness that he whispered rapturously at its close,

"My wife, my wife!"




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