compelled to disguise his sentiments, though
the engagement remained unbroken. While matters were in this uncertain
condition, he received advices from England demanding his instant
return, and, alarmed at the prospect of a protracted absence from the
object of his affections, he writes to the lady, informing her of
the circumstances, and proposing a secret marriage. She consents with
stipulations; the first of which is, that he should leave her instantly
upon the conclusion of the ceremony, and the second, that he should
intrust the public declaration of the marriage to her. It was not
precisely what he wished, but anything which served to make her his
own was acceptable at such a crisis. He readily enters into the plans
proposed. Meeting the lady at a parsonage, some twenty miles from the
watering-place at which she was staying, he stands up with her before
a Methodist preacher, and the ceremony of marriage is performed. There
were two witnesses, a hired man of the minister, called in for the
purpose, and a lady friend who came with the bride; but there was no
license, and the bride had not completed her twenty-first year. Now, was
that marriage legal? If the lady, wedded in good faith upon that day by
my friend, chooses to deny that she is his lawful wife, can he hold
her to a compact entered into in so informal a manner? In short, Mr.
Raymond, is my friend the lawful husband of that girl or not?"

While listening to this story, I found myself yielding to feelings
greatly in contrast to those with which I greeted the relator but a
moment before. I became so interested in his "friend's" case as to
quite forget, for the time being, that I had ever seen or heard of Henry
Clavering; and after learning that the marriage ceremony took place in
the State of New York, I replied to him, as near as I can remember, in
the following words: "In this State, and I believe it to be American
law, marriage is a civil contract, requiring neither license, priest,
ceremony, nor certificate--and in some cases witnesses are not even
necessary to give it validity. Of old, the modes of getting a wife were
the same as those of acquiring any other species of property, and they
are not materially changed at the present time. It is enough that the
man and woman say to each other, 'From this time we are married,' or,
'You are now my wife,' or, 'my husband,' as the case may be. The mutual
consent is all that is necessary. In fact, you may contract