so it was with a look of terror in her eyes that she
shrank yet further away as she asked:

"What dost thou mean, my father? what dost thou mean?"

"I mean, Kate," answered Sir Richard, not unkindly, but so
resolutely that his words fell upon her ear like a knell, "that the
best and safest plan of curing thee of thy fond and foolish fancy,
which can never come to good, is to wed thee with a man who will
make thee a kind and loving husband, and will maintain thee in the
state to which thou hast been born. Wherefore, prepare to wed with
Sir Robert Fortescue without delay, for to him I will give thy hand
in wedlock so soon as we can have thee ready to be his bride."

Kate stood for a moment as if transfixed and turned to stone, and
then she suddenly sank upon her knees at her father's feet.

"Father," she said, in a strange, choked voice, that indicated an
intense emotion and agitation, "thou canst not make me the wife of
another; for methinks I am well nigh, if not altogether, the wife
of my cousin Culverhouse."

"What?" almost shouted Sir Richard, making one step forward and
seizing his daughter by the arm. "Wretched girl, what is this that
thou sayest? The wife of thy cousin Culverhouse! Shame upon thee
for so base a falsehood! How dost thou dare to frame thy lips to
it?"

"It is no falsehood!" answered Kate, with flashing eyes, springing
to her feet and confronting her parents with all her old courage,
and with a touch of defiance. "I would have kneeled to ask your
pardon for my rashness, for my disobedience, for the long
concealment; but I am no liar, I speak but the truth. Listen, and I
will tell all. It was on May Day, and I rode forth into the forest
and distanced pursuit, and joined my cousin Culverhouse, as we had
vowed to do. We thought then of naught but the joy of a day
together in the forest, and had not dreamed of such a matter as
wedlock. But then to the church porch came one calling himself a
priest. They say he comes every year, and weds all who will come to
him. And many did. And Culverhouse and I stood before him, and he
joined our hands, and we made our vows, and he pronounced us man
and wife before all assembled there. And whether it be binding
wedlock or no, it is to us a solemn betrothal made before God and
man; and not all the commands thou couldst lay upon me, my father,
could make me stand up and vow myself to another as I have vowed
myself to Culverhouse. I should hold myself forsworn;