hope that
things would turn out differently. I thought it would be so beautiful
to go up to the altar with him, as other brides do; and have our union
so sanctioned. But, since this could not be, what right have we to be
so cowardly and narrow-minded as to cling to a mere form when two human
lives are at stake? As soon as I saw that it was to decide the weal or
woe of his life and of his art, every scruple left me. We are neither
of us so young or so inexperienced as to be deceived about our hearts.
They are indissolubly bound together. And it is therefore no crime and
no presumption, but something that was as certainly decreed by Heaven
as was ever union between two human beings, for me to be from this day
forth the true wife of this man, and for him to be forever my beloved
husband."

She turned away for a moment; her voice failed her. A breathless
silence reigned. The gentlemen, with the exception of the bridegroom,
who gazed fixedly in his beloved's eyes, lowered their eyes and stood
solemn and still as if in a house of worship; the little foster-mother
held her handkerchief before her eyes, and the big tear-drops rolled
down Angelica's face, while she struggled to look at her friend as
cheerfully and encouragingly as possible. Now, when the latter turned
to her, she hastily took up a little silver dish she had held in
readiness and handed it to Julie, trying, as she did so, to give her
friend's hand a stolen pressure. Two little gold rings, looking rubbed
and thin, as if they had been worn a long time, lay in the plate.

"These are the wedding rings of my parents," said the bride. "For many
long years they served as the sign of a union that grew ever firmer in
good and in bad fortune. I think you will not oppose me, dearest, if I
use them to sanctify our marriage. I herewith give you this ring that
my father received from my mother, and swear to you, before these
friends of ours, to be a true wife to you and a good mother to your
child. And if you do not repent of having offered me your life--"

She could not finish. In a sudden overflow of feeling he seized the
other ring, thrust it at random on one of her fingers, and folded the
blushing girl in a passionate embrace. It seemed as if he would never
let her go again; his breast heaved with suppressed sobbing, he hid his
face upon her neck, and her soft locks dried the tears he was ashamed
to show.

In the mean while it appeared that none of the witnesses took