‘I will,’ said Maude, from her heart.
‘Who giveth this woman to be married to this man?’
‘I do. Mr. John Selby—her father, you know.’
And then in turn they repeated the fateful words—‘I take thee to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, cherish, and obey, till death us do part, according to God’s holy ordinance, and thereto I give thee my troth.’
‘Ring! Ring!’ said Hale.
‘Ring, you Juggins!’ whispered Jack Selby.
Frank thrust his hands frantically into all his pockets. The ring was in the last one which he attempted. But the bank-note was not to be found. He remembered that he had put it in some safe place. Where could it have been? Was it in his boot, or in the lining of his hat? No, surely he could not have done anything so infatuated. Again he took his pockets two at a time, while a dreadful pause came in the ceremony.
‘Vestry—afterwards,’ whispered the clergyman.
‘Here you are!’ gasped Frank. He had come upon it in a last desperate dive into his watch-pocket, in which he never by any chance kept anything. Of course it was for that very reason, that it might be alone and accessible, that he had placed it there. Ring and note were handed to the vicar, who deftly concealed the one and returned the other. Then Maude’s little white hand was outstretched, and over the third finger Frank slipped the circlet of gold.
‘With this ring I thee wed,’ said Frank, ‘and with my body I thee worship (he paused, and made a mental emendation of ‘with my soul also’), and with all my worldly goods I thee endow.’