The Illegal Marriage — page 261: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE ILLEGAL MARRIAGE. 253 around her neck, and the pure gems which were seen in the folds of her hair, were all objects far above the criticism of the sex. They were married. Cecy Morgan came from the church Cecy Stannard, and in that happy hour the trials of her girlhood were forgotten. Was she not happy at last? Bridal presents were showered upon her; kind friends were crowding around her; her wedding had been as brilliant as heart could wish; and was she not his wife? “No one but Cecy Morgan could have had such a wedding,” was a remark that fell from many a dainty lip that day, and manv a gleaming eye, for many a day thereafter, saw pictures in the future of a wedding some time to be, no less brilliant, no less grand. Among the bridal presents was a small packet with the name of Lawyer Martin upon it. Cecy had slipped it into her pocket when bidding her friends adieu, and she had entered the carriage with her husband before again remembering the curi- osity which this gift had excited. “What is it, Cecy?” Stannard asked, as they were driving toward the castle, and she hastily broke the seal to ascertain. A few pieces of paper fell into her lap. “What can it be?” she said, running her eye over the words; but in a moment she looked up into her husband’s face. It was the torn will. “It is as he wished,” she said, faintly, as she leaned upon her husband’s manly breast, and bowed low her head to hide from him the tears of joy that would roll, in great pearly drops, from her glisten- ing eyes. *K * * * * Some years have passed since the Echaconnee tragedy occurred, and of the actors in the drama then enacted—some are scattered about the world, and some are dead. Ham Pierce, as true a man as ever lived, Martin, the honest attorney; Peyton Crawford, rich, gifted, and handsome as a god; and pretty Mary Hawks, Eomicbooks (elo)