youths were eagerly pleading their cause, and striving to drag their mistresses to the nuptial altar amid the laughter and encouragement of the bystanders.  Cuthbert moved along in search of his companions, greatly amused by all he saw and heard; and presently he caught sight of Kate and Culverhouse standing together close beside the church, half hidden within a small embrasure enclosed between two buttresses.  Her face was covered with brilliant blushes, whilst he had hold of her hand, and seemed to be pleading with her with impassioned earnestness.  As Cuthbert approached he heard these words: 

“Nay, sweetest Kate, why hold back?  Have we not loved each other faithfully and long?  Why dost thou fear?”

“O Culverhouse, methinks it would be wrong.  How can we know that such wedlock would be lawful?  Methinks my mother would break her heart did she think the knot had been thus loosely tied.”

“Nay, but, Kate, thou scarce takest my meaning as yet.  This pledge given betwixt us before yon priest would be to us but the betrothal troth plight.  I doubt myself whether such wedlock would be lawful; nor would I dare to call thee my wife did none but he tie the knot.  But listen, sweet coz:  if we go before him and thus plight our troth and join our hands together, none will dare to bid us wed another.  It will be too solemn a pledge to be lightly broken.  Men think gravely of such matters as solemn betrothal, and in days to come if they should urge upon thee or me to wed with another, we have but to tell of what was done this day, and they will cease to strive to come between us more.

“O sweetest mistress, fairest Kate, let us not part today without some pledge of mutual faith and constancy!  Let me hold this little hand and place my token on thy finger; then be the time of waiting never so long, I shall know that at last I may call thee mine before all the world!”

Kate was quivering, blushing, trembling with excitement, though not with fear; for she loved Culverhouse too completely to feel aught but the most perfect confidence in him and his honour and faith.

“If only I could be sure it was not wrong!” she faltered.

“Wrong to plight thy hand, when thy heart is long since given?” he asked, with tender playfulness.  “Where can the wrong be there?”

“I know not.  I would fain be altogether thine.  But what would my father and mother say?”

It was plain already that she was yielding.  Culverhouse drew her tenderly towards him.

“Nay, sweet coz, there be times when the claim of the parent must give place to the closer claim of the lover, the husband.  Does not Scripture itself tell us as much?  Trust me, I speak for our best good.  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.”