a was so kind as to excuse me,"
Beatrice replied.

"But why not, my love? I thought young ladies always liked to fill such
positions."

Bee blushed and lowered her head, but did not reply.

Claudia answered for her:

"Beatrice does not like Lord Vincent; and does not approve of the
marriage," she said defiantly.

"Humph!" exclaimed the judge, and not another word was spoken during the
drive.

It was a rather long one. The church selected for the performance of the
marriage rites being St. John's, at the west end of the town, where the
bridegroom and his friends were to meet the bride and her attendants.

They reached the church at last; the other carriages arrived a few
seconds after them, and the whole party alighted and went in.

The bridegroom and his friends were already there. And the bridal
procession formed and went up the middle aisle to the altar, where the
bishop in his sacerdotal robes stood ready to perform the ceremony.

The bridal party formed before the altar, the bishop opened the book,
and the ceremony commenced. It proceeded according to the ritual, and
without the slightest deviation from commonplace routine.

When the bishop came to that part of the rites in which he utters the
awful adjuration--"I require and charge you both, as ye shall answer at
the dreadful day of judgment, when the secrets of all hearts shall be
disclosed, that if either of you know any impediment why ye may not be
lawfully joined together in matrimony, ye do now confess it. For be ye
well assured, that if any persons are joined together, otherwise than
God's word doth allow, their marriage is not lawful,"--Bee, who was
standing with her mother and father near the bridal circle, looked up at
the bride.

Oh, could Claudia, loving another, loathing the bridegroom, kneel in
that sacred church, before that holy altar, in the presence of God's
minister, in the presence of God himself, hear that solemn adjuration,
and persevere in her awful sin?

Yes, Claudia could! as tens of thousands, from ignorance, from
insensibility, or from recklessness, have done before her; and as tens
of thousands more, from the same causes, will do after her.

The ceremony proceeded until it reached the part where the ring is
placed upon the bride's finger, and all went well enough until, as they
were rising from the prayer of "Our Father," the bride happened to lower
her hand, and the ring, which was too large for her finger, dropped off,