"That you shall have as soon as I can get to my rooms at Brown's Hotel yonder. A messenger shall bring it to you at once. Time will indeed be short for me. First, the slipper for Madam. Then the license for myself. Then the minister. Then a friend. Then a carriage. Five miles to Elmhurst, and the train for the North starts at eight. Indeed, as you say, the methods of this country are sometimes hurried. Madam, can not you use your wits in a cause so worthy as mine?"
I could not at the time understand the swift change of her features. "One woman's wits against another's!" she flashed at me. "As for that"—She made a swift motion to her throat. "Here is the trinket. Tell the tall lady it is my present to you. Tell her I may send her a wedding present—when the wedding really is to happen. Of course, you do not mean what you have said about being married in such haste?"
"Every word of it," I answered. "And at her own home. 'Tis no runaway match; I have the consent of her father."
"But you said you had her consent only an hour ago. Ah, this is better than a play!"
"It is true," said I, "there has not been time to inform Miss Churchill's family of my need for haste. I shall attend to that when I arrive. The lady has seen the note from Mr. Calhoun ordering me to Montreal."
"To Montreal? How curious!" she mused. "But what did Mr. Calhoun say to this marriage?"
"He forbade the banns."
"But Monsieur will take her before him in a sack—and he will forbid you, I am sure, to condemn that lady to a life in a cabin, to a couch of husks, to a lord who would crush her arms and command her—"
I flushed as she reminded me of my own speech, and there came no answer but the one which I imagine is the verdict of all lovers. "She is the dearest girl in the world," I declared.
"Has she fortune?"