Let us but go together before this priest and speak the words that, said in church, would make us man and wife, and none will dare to keep us apart for ever, or bid us wed with another.

Such words must be binding upon the soul, be the legal bond little or much.

It is hard to say what the force of such a pledge may be; but well I know that neither my father nor thine would dare to try to break it, once they were told how and when it had been made.

Thou wilt be mine for ever, Kate, an thou wilt do this thing." The temptation was too great to be resisted.

To plight her troth thus to Culverhouse, in a fashion which might not be wholly ignored or set aside, was a thing but too congenial to the daring and ardent temperament of the girl.