As Sally placed her icy, trembling little hand in David’s the first of the younger Mrs. Greer’s promised sobs startled her so that she swayed against David, almost fainting. The boy’s left arm went about her shoulders, held her close, as the opening words of the marriage ceremony fell slowly and impressively from the marrying parson’s lips:
“Dearly beloved—”
Peace fell suddenly upon the girl’s heart and nerves. All fear left her; there was nothing in the world but beautiful words which were like a magic incantation, endowing an orphaned girl with respectability, happiness, family, an honored place in society as the wife of David Nash—
A bell shrilled loudly, shattering the beauty and the solemnity of the greatest moment in Sally’s life. Behind her, on the sofa, she heard the faint rustle of Mrs. Greer’s stiff silk skirt, whispers as the two witnesses conferred. The preacher’s voice, which had faltered, went on, more hurried, flustered:
“Do you, David, take this woman—”
Again the bell clamored, a long, shrill, angry demand. The preacher’s voice faltered again, the momentous question left half asked. He looked at his wife over the tap of his spectacles and nodded slightly. Mrs. Greer’s skirts rustled apologetically as she hurried out of the room. Sally forced her eyes to travel upward to David’s stern, set young face; their eyes locked for a moment, Sally’s piteous with fright, then David answered that half-asked question loudly, emphatically, as if with the words he would defeat fate:
“I do!”
A clamor of voices suddenly filled the little entrance hall beyond the parsonage parlor. Sally, recognizing both of the voices, was galvanized to swift, un-Sallylike initiative. Stepping swiftly out of the circle of David’s arm, but still clinging to his hand, she sprang toward the preacher, her eyes blazing, her face pinched with fear and drained of all color.
“Please go on!” she gasped. “Please, Mr. Greer. Don’t let them stop us now! Ask me—‘Do you take this man—? Please, I do, I do!”
“Sally, darling—” David was trying to restrain her, his voice heavy with pity.