he took
his place at the altar, and the ceremony commenced without delay. As soon
as it was concluded, he bowed with great politeness to all present, and
said, "You are all here witnesses that I have performed my engagement!"
Then, without even looking at his bride, he quitted the church, and,
accompanied by his friend, entered the carriage which was in waiting, and
drove rapidly away! Mary was carried senseless from the church, and for
several weeks continued dangerously ill.

The real strength of her character now showed itself. She made no
complaint; she did not even assume her husband's name, but took the
appellation of Mrs. Chambellan. The settlement was returned to Colonel
Pollexfen's lawyer, with an intimation that it would never be claimed. She
stilled the anger of her brothers, and would not endure a word to be said
against her husband. She never alluded to him herself. A great change came
over her; she did not seem to suffer nearly so much from her cruel
position as might have been expected; her melancholy and depression gave
place to a steady determination of purpose. In the brief space during
which she and her husband had stood before the altar, she had realized the
distance that existed between their positions in life. With a rare
superiority, she understood how natural it was that he should have felt no
desire to fulfill his boyish engagement; she owned in her heart that she
was not fitted to be the wife and companion of such a man as he had now
become. Had she seen all this sooner, she would have at once released him;
now she could no longer do so, and she resolved to fit herself to fill the
station to which, as his wife, she had been raised.

The brief interview before the altar had stimulated to desperation her
attachment to him: and she felt that she must win him back or die. Mary
had received very little education. In those days the education bestowed
on most women was very limited; but Mary fancied that all gentlewomen, who
moved in society, were well-informed; and her first step was to obtain
some elementary books from the master of a boy's school at York, and
begin, with undoubting simplicity, to learn history and geography, and all
the things which she supposed every lady of her husband's acquaintance
knew. A thirst for information was soon aroused in her; she had few
advantages and very little assistance; but her energies and perseverance
surmounted all obstacles, and she found a present reward i