lighted altar, laden with flowers, was in
front of me; and that the Bishop in his vestments, Father Dan in his
surplice and white stole, and a clerk carrying a book and a vessel of
holy water were beginning the service.

Surely never was there a sadder ceremony. Never did any girl under
similar circumstances feel a more vivid presentiment of the pains and
penalties that follow on a forced and ill-assorted marriage. And yet
there came to me in the course of the service such a startling change of
thought as wiped out for a while all my sadness, made me forget the
compulsion that had been put upon me, and lifted me into a realm of
spiritual ecstasy.

The Bishop began with a short litany which asked God's blessing on the
ceremony which was to join together two of His children in the bonds of
holy wedlock. While that was going on I was conscious of nothing except
the howling of the wind about the church windows and the far-off tolling
of the bell on St. Mary's Rock--nothing but this and a voice within me
which seemed to say again and again, "I don't love him! I don't love
him!"

But hardly had the actual ceremony commenced when I began to be overawed
by the solemnity and divine power of the service, and by the sense of
God leaning over my littleness and guiding me according to His will.

What did it matter how unworthy were the preparations that had led up
to this marriage if God was making it? God makes all marriages that are
blessed by His Church, and therefore He overrules to His own good ends
all human impulses, however sordid or selfish they may be.

After that thought came to me nothing else seemed to matter, and
nothing, however jarring or incongruous, was able to lower the
exaltation of my spirit.

But the service, which had this effect upon me, appeared to have an
exactly opposite effect on Lord Raa. His nervousness increased visibly,
though he did his best to conceal it by a lightness of manner that
sometimes looked like derision.

Thus when the Bishop stepped down to us and said:

"James Charles Munster, wilt thou take Mary here present for thy lawful
wife, according to the rite of our holy Mother the Church," my husband
halted and stammered over his answer, saying beneath his breath, "I
thought I was a heretic."

But when the corresponding question was put to me, and Father Dan
thinking I must be nervous, leaned over me and whispered, "Don't worry,
child, take your time," I replied a loud, clear, unfa