What could he mean? He was senseless!--and I mounted my horse,
galloped to the parsonage, was received with radiant smiles, and forgot
the whole scene. On the next day Nighthawk did not return--nor on the
next. I did not see him again until the evening of the day on which I
was married.
"To that 'auspicious moment' I have now conducted you, my dear Surry.
The morning for my marriage came. I say 'the morning'--for my
'enchantress,' as the amatory poets say, had declared that she detested
the idea of being married at night; she also objected to
company;--would I not consent to have the ceremony performed quietly at
the parsonage, with no one present but her brother and the excellent
parson, Hope, and his old housekeeper? Then she would belong to me--I
could do as I pleased with her--take her to Fonthill, or where I
chose--she only begged that I would allow her to embark on the ocean of
matrimony, with no one to witness her blushes but myself, her brother,
the old housekeeper, and the good minister!
"I consented at once. The speech charmed me, I need not say--and I was
not myself unwilling to dispense with inquisitive eyes and laughing
witnesses. Infatuated as I was, I could not conceal from myself that my
marriage was a hasty and extremely 'romantic' affair. I doubted whether
the old friends of my father in the neighborhood would approve of it;
and now, when Mademoiselle gave me a good excuse to dispense with their
presence, I gladly assented, invited no one, and went to my wedding
alone, in the great family chariot, unaccompanied by a single friend or
relative.
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