But I was fancying myself more in love with my gay partner than ever,
and once, in a pause of the dances, when he whispered, 'If to-night would
only last forever, with you at my side, I should be content.'
"I came swiftly to the conclusion that life without George Le Grande
would be tasteless, and resolved then and there to yield to his
entreaties and fly from my solemn bridegroom. But my mind was wavering,
and I kept putting it off until the very night before my marriage morn
that was to be. We left the city by a midnight train, and after
travelling until morning we stopped at a country village--really I forget
the name, if I ever knew it--and were married in a little country church
by a dull, old minister who regarded us suspiciously all the time he was
performing the ceremony. I was sure he thought us a runaway couple,
but that did not trouble me so much as that obscure marriage with a
heavy-looking pair brought in from a cottage near at hand to witness the
ceremony. I kept contrasting it with the stately ceremony that was to
have taken place nearly at the same hour, in old Trinity, with the organ
pealing forth the wedding march, the rush of guests and sight-seers,
orange blossoms and perfumes, and all the bewildering vanities of a
fashionable wedding. Before I had signed my maiden name for the last
time, I began to regret my rash step, and ere the month was ended the
thorns of my ill-advised sowing were springing up around me. We were
neither of us so constituted as to make the best of a bad bargain, and
our married life had scarce begun when we began magnifying each other's
failings, and soon our brief passion had burnt itself out.
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