“As if I would!  Oh, Herman, as if I would depend upon anything but your dear love to give me all I need!  Armed against you, am I?  I do not choose to be so!  It is enough for me to know that I am your wife.  I do not care to be able to prove it; for, Herman, were it possible for you to forsake me, I should not insist upon my ’rights’—­I should die.  Therefore, why should I be armed with legal proofs against you, my Herman, my life, my soul, my self?  I will not continue so!” And with a generous abandonment she drew from her bosom the marriage certificate, tore it to pieces, and scattered it abroad, saying:  “There now!  I had kept it as a love token, close to my heart, little knowing it was a cold-blooded, cautious, legal proof, else it should have gone before, where it has gone now, to the winds!  There now, Herman, I am your own wife, your own Nora, quite unarmed and defenseless before you; trusting only to your faith for my happiness; knowing that you will never willingly forsake me; but feeling that if you do, I should not pursue you, but die!”

“Dear trusting girl! would you indeed deprive yourself of all defenses thus?  But, my Nora, did you suppose when I took you to my bosom that I had intrusted your peace and safety and honor only to a scrap of perishable paper?  No, Nora, no!  Infidelity to you is forever impossible to me; but death is always possible to all persons; and so, though I could never forsake you, I might die and leave you; and to guard against the consequences of such a contingency I surrounded you with every legal security.  The minister that married us resides in this county; the witness that attended us lives with you.  So that if to-morrow I should die, you could claim, as my widow, your half of my personal property and your life-interest in my estate.  And if to-morrow you should become impatient of your condition as a secreted wife, and wish to enter upon all the honors of Bradenell Hall, you have the power to do so!”

“As if I would!  As if it was for that I loved you! oh, Herman!”

“I know you would not, love!  And I know it was not for that you loved me!  I have perfect confidence in your disinterestedness.  And I hope you have as much in mine.”

“I have, Herman.  I have!”

“Then, to go back to the first question, why did you wound me by saying, that though I had married you, you knew you never could be owned as my wife?”

“I spoke from a deep conviction!  Oh, Herman, I know you will never willingly forsake me; but I feel you will never acknowledge me!”

“Then you must think me a villain!” said Herman bitterly.

“No, no, no; I think, if you must have my thoughts, you are the gentlest, truest, and noblest among men.”

“You cannot get away from the point; if you think I could desert you, you must think I am a villain!”

“Oh, no, no! besides, I did not say you would desert me!  I said you would never own me!”