lt as if I was dreaming again. I trembled
violently, and my teeth struck against each other. My aunt,
Alice, and Henry, took their places on one side of the altar,
and the rest of the people sat down in the surrounding pews.
The clergyman bent forward and beckoned to my uncle, who went
up to speak to him. At that moment I heard a step behind us,
and somebody passed on Edward's side. I looked up, and saw a
tall woman in deep mourning, and with a veil over her face,
take her place in a pew which was nearly opposite to me. A
vague terror seized me, and I could not take my eyes off this
person. When everybody rose at the beginning of the opening
exhortation, she remained sitting, till, when the priest said
these words--

"Therefore, if any man can show any just cause why they may
not lawfully be joined together, let him now speak or else
hereafter for ever hold his peace."

She slowly rose, drew back her veil, and fixed her eyes upon
me; her thin lips moved as I had seen them move in my dream,
and she seemed about to speak. I gave a hurried glance of
despair at Henry; our eyes met, and then mine were rivetted to
the ground, and my limbs and my heart seemed turned to stone.
I _felt_ that woman's gaze upon me. I knew that at the close
of the exhortation she sat down, and that she rose again when
the clergyman said--

"Who gives this woman to be married to this man?"
When Mr. Middleton took my hand and placed it in Edward's, the
sound of a groan reached my ears; and when I raised my eyes,
and, for the second time, fixed them by a kind of fascination
on those malignant features and glassy eyes, they glared upon
me with an expression which I cannot describe, and hardly dare
to recall. The service went on, and when we knelt down to
pray, while my face was buried in my hands, I heard the sound
of receding footsteps; I looked up; she was gone, but I felt
that she had cursed me as she went.

The ceremony was concluded. I was Edward's wife. I rose from
my knees and looked about me. Henry was gone. Alice was pale,
and her eyes were full of tears; she, too, was like what I had
seen in my dream. We went into the vestry and signed some
papers. As I was stepping into Edward's chariot to drive home
again, a paper was thrust into my hand; I took it
mechanically, and held it unconsciously in my clenched hand. I
smiled when Edward spoke tome, and looked at him with
inexpressible affection when he drew me to him, and called me
his wi