The Illegal Marriage — page 57: what you’re looking at

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

THE ILLEGAL MARRIAGE, 49 it did really beat the same now that it had a lord and master. It was sweet, indeed, to this lovely girl to feel that she did belong heart and soul to him; and she now gave her allegiance freely. Taking his photograph from her sack, she gazed upon it, turning it this way and that to see if she could catch the expression that she had last seen upon his face. “YT will always obey him,” she told herself; and then she wondered how other women could really cavil at the word “obey” any more than at the words “love” and “honor.” Again and again she ran over the all important formula in the book of Common Prayer, and called herself a foolish girl for doing so. She had given herself wholly and utterly to this lord of her heart, feeling no reserve now, knowing no will but his; but yet, she trembled at the very thought of one name. “How fond papa must be of him,” she mused; and Cecy’s hand, still holding the picture, fell upon her lap, and she gazed out across the white cotton fields, and over the dark line of pines beyond. So happy had she been on this homeward drive that she almost regretted her arrival; but the car- riage was now at the gate, and springing out, she tripped lightly up the walk. Still her mind wan- dered back to the city. “He will soon walk up here with me on his arm,” she told herself, as, just glancing at her favorite flowers, she sprang up the steps. With a flushed and beaming face she came upon the porch to meet Doctor Trippe as he came from the hall. For a moment the bright color forsook GEomicboo “S (elo)