said:

"Indeed, Kate, you must not class me with him, or with any man. Remember
that we were married two Christmases ago--" she answered:

"You foolish boy! that was not a real marriage: a real marriage is done in
a church, by a parson, and I wear a white veil."

"But ours was an elopement," objected Archibald, disturbed.

"An elopement without a carriage-and-four and a blacksmith? What an idea!"


"Do you mean to say you are not my wife, Kate?" demanded the boy, turning
pale.

"Neither yours nor anybody's, Mr. Archibald."

"Kate!" he broke out passionately, the blood leaping to his face, "take
care you never let yourself be any body else's wife than mine! And I don't
see what difference a blacksmith or a veil makes. And if you do, they
shall die! I know how to use a sword, and a pistol too!"

"O Archie, how wicked you are! and how cruel to me, when you know that I
can never love any man but you, though cruel fate may separate us for a
season!" The young lady was quoting from "Evelina," as Archibald well
knew, but they had got so much in the habit of applying the phraseology of
that work to the requirements of their own private romance, that it came
without their thinking of it.