Like some frozen statue Richard stood, and the minister, thinking
he did not hear, repeated his demand. Slowly Richard moved
forward, and Grace, who was next to Edith, stepped aside as he
came near. Reverently he laid his hand on Edith's head, and said
aloud,
"I DO!"
Then the hand, sliding from her head rested on her shoulder, where
it lay all through that ceremony, and the weeping speculators
sitting near, heard distinctly the words whispered by the white
lips which dripped with the perspiration of this last dreadful
agony.
"I, Richard, take thee, Birdie, to be my wedded wife, to have and
to hold, from this day forward, for better for worse, for richer
for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish,
till death us do part, according to God's holy ordinance; and
thereto I plight thee my troth."
He said it every word, and when it was Edith's turn, he bent a
little forward, while his hand grasped her bare shoulder so firmly
as to leave a mark when she put Arthur's name where his should
have been, and the quivering lips moaned faintly,
"Don't Birdie, don't.
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