“Yes, you are right,” answered the young man pressing Katie’s arm more firmly in his own to give silent vent to his impatience and his defiance.

“And acted on without premeditation,” resumed Master Shurtleff.  “I left England early in the spring, and coming to this worthy city of Portsmouth with letters of introduction to Master Archdale, and others, I met the beautiful Mistress Archdale.  From the first hour my fate was sealed; I loved her as only a man of strong and deep emotions can love, with a very different feeling from the devotion her young admirers gave her, ardent though they considered themselves.  I had many rivals, some the young lady herself so disapproved that they ceased troubling me, even with their presence at her side.  Among the others were only two worthy of attention, and only one whom I feared.  I was reticent and watched; it was too soon to speak.  But as I watched my fear of that one increased, for age, association, a sternness of manner that unbent only to her, many things in him showed me his possibilities of success.  With that rival out of my path, my way to victory was clear.  There came a day when, without lifting my finger against him, I could effectually remove him.  I did it.  It was unjustifiable, but the temptation rushed upon me suddenly with overwhelming force, and it was irresistible, for opposite me sat Katie, more beautiful and lovable than ever, and beside her was my rival, her cousin, with an air of security and satisfaction that aroused the evil in me.  It was August; we were on the river in a dead calm, and at Mistress Archdale’s suggestion had been telling stories for amusement.  Mine happened to be about a runaway match, and interested the young people so much, that when I had finished they asked several questions; one was in reference to a remark of mine, innocently made, that the marriage ceremony itself, pure and simple, was something unimaginably short.  The story I had told illustrated this, and some of the party asked me more particularly as to what the form was.  Then I saw my opportunity, and I took it.  ’If one of the young ladies will permit Master Archdale to take her hand a moment,’ I said, ’I think I can recollect the words; I will show you how short the formula may be.’  Master Archdale was for holding Katie’s hand, but happily, as it seemed to me at the moment, she was on the wrong side.  I requested him to take the lady on the other hand, who seemed a trifle unready for the jest, but was induced by the entreaties of the others, and especially of Mistress Katie herself.  I went through the marriage service over them as rapidly as I dared, my voice sounding to myself thick with the beating of my heart.  But no one noticed this; of course, it was all fun.  And so that summer evening, all in fun, except on my part, Stephen Archdale and Elizabeth Royal were made man and wife, as fast as marriage vows could make them.  Nothing was omitted that would make the ceremony binding and legal, not even its performance by a clergyman of the Church of England.”