r the circumstances, the parson and
myself being both here, Mr. Belamour trusts you will not object to the
immediate performance of the ceremony."

Aurelia took some moments to realise what the ceremony was; and then she
cried, "Oh! but my father meant to have been here."

"Mr. Belamour thinks it better not to trouble Major Delavie to come
up," said Mr. Hargrave; and as Aurelia stood in great distress and
disappointment at this disregard of her wishes, he added, "I think Miss
Delavie cannot fail to understand Mr. Belamour's wishes to anticipate
my Lady's arrival, so that he may be as little harassed as possible with
display and publicity. You may rely both on his honour and my vigilance
that all is done securely and legally."

"Oh! I know that," said Aurelia, blushing; "but it is so sudden! And I
was thinking of my father---"

"Your honoured father has given full consent in writing," said the
steward. "Your doubts and scruples are most natural, my dear madam, but
under the circumstances they must give way, for it would be impossible
to Mr. Belamour to go through a public wedding."

That Aurelia well knew, though she had expected nothing so sudden or
so private; but she began to feel that she must allow all to be as he
chose; and she remembered that she had never pressed on him her longing
for her father's presence, having taken it as a matter of course, and
besides, having been far too shy to enter on the subject of her wedding.
So she rose up as in a dream, saying, "Shall I go as I am?"

"I fear a fuller toilet would be lost upon the bridegroom," said the
lawyer with some commiseration, as he looked at the beautiful young
creature about to be bound to the heart-broken old hermit. "You will
have to do me the honour of accepting my services in the part of
father."

He was a man much attached to the family, and especially to Mr.
Belamour, his first patron, and was ready to do anything at his bidding
or for his pleasure. Such private weddings were by no uncommon up to
the middle of the last century. The State Law was so easy as to render
Gretna Green unnecessary, when the presence of any clergyman anywhere,
while the parties plighted their troth before witnesses, was sufficient
to legalise the union; nor did any shame or sense of wrong necessarily
attach to such marriages. Indeed they were often the resource of
persons too bashful or too refined to endure the display and boisterous
merriment by which a public weddi