Dame Elliot never showed any displeasure at these improvident acts of her husband.  She admired and respected his pious motives, and his beautiful spirit of self-denial:  and she only strove the more to limit her expenses, and to make their home cheerful and comfortable with the scanty means she possessed, while she willingly conformed to the life of extreme simplicity which he felt it right to adopt.  More than one dish was never allowed to appear on his table, and water was his only beverage.  If wine was offered him at the house of a friend, he courteously declined, but never blamed in others the indulgence which he denied to himself.  He used to say, ’Wine is a precious, noble thing, and we should thank the Lord for it; but to suit me aright, water should rather be there.’

Such were the Christian pair who came to attend the wedding of Edith and Roger; and to offer their congratulations on the event, and their prayers that it might tend to the present and the eternal happiness of their valued friend and his interesting bride.  It could not be otherwise than that Dame Elliot and Edith should form a speedy and a lasting friendship.  There was a similarity of feeling, and a difference of character, that rendered them peculiarly agreeable to each other; and made them mutually rejoice in the prospect of future intercourse which the strong regard that subsisted between Elliot and Williams, and the nearness of Salem to Roxburgh, promised to afford them.  The young matron was of a much more calm and subdued temperament than her new friend.  Her early life and education had been very different from Edith’s; and the man on whom she had fixed her affections, and the mode of life to which her marriage had conducted her, had alike tended to promote a quiet composure, and steady regulation of mind, rather than to arouse the enthusiastic feelings and the lively fancies that distinguished Edith’s character, and which had proved so irresistible a charm to the fervid soul of Williams.  But each of the young women was well adapted to the lot which Providence had assigned them; and each proved a blessing, and a support through life, to their respective partners.

But little preparation was required for the Puritan nuptials that were now about to be celebrated:  and little gaiety or display was manifested on the occasion.  According to the custom of the sect, the marriage ceremony was performed by Bradford, as the chief civil magistrate, and the personal friend of the family.  At that period, marriage was regarded as a mere civil act; and either the magistrate of the place, or a commissary appointed for the purpose, was alone required by law to officiate.  If a clergyman chanced to be present, he was generally requested to offer up a prayer, or even to deliver a suitable discourse to the, parties; but this was a matter of choice, and not of necessity, and had no share in the validity of the ceremony.  Even the wedding ring had already begun to be regarded by the Plymouthers as a relic of Popish corruption and superstition, and was, in many cases, dispensed with, and some time afterwards formally forbidden.  But on this occasion it was retained, at the wish of both Edith and her mother; who were accustomed to regard it as a beautiful, and almost a sacred, symbol of the purity and the duration of the holy tie of marriage.