“Go away, you old devil,” said Hulda. “If you attempt to kiss me I’ll jump into the water.”
“The Lord be praised and glorified,” ejaculated the Vickingstadt, taken all aback. “Is that the English that was taught you by the blaguard schoolmaster, after me payin’ me good money for you?”
Hulda, red in the face, showed plainly that the fighting blood of the Schneiders was up. The interpreter interposed and said to Hulda, “You must smile and look pleased, or you will be sent back. The minister is waiting, and you will have to look as if you were tickled to death over it.”
Thereupon he took Hulda by the arm and led her to where the “architect” stood with the Lutheran clergyman.
“Shall I have to say to him I love him?” queried Hulda of the interpreter.
“You sure will,” was the rejoinder.
“I can’t,” said Hulda, “it will be a lie; I hate him already,” she added desperately.
In the end, however, they were married, and in accordance with the rites of the Lutheran Church, to which Hulda belonged.
It will have been noticed that she did not like to swear to a lie, which was a point in her favor. It will also be seen that the holy institution of matrimony was being used for fraudulent purposes. If it had been the United States mail that had been used in a like manner Hulda, the “architect,” the interpreter and all concerned would have been found guilty of a misdemeanor, and the immigration authorities would have had to account for compounding a felony. Both of the contracting parties swore to unseeming lies, and the Lord’s anointed was in attendance to see that no word was left out or substituted to make the lies less patent. The bridegroom swore to endow Hulda with all his worldly goods, when, as a matter of fact, he only intended to give her a few dollars now and then. The bride swore, between sobs, that she would love, honor and obey her husband until death should them part, notwithstanding that the uppermost thought in her mind was to run away from him as soon as she should enter the city. Hulda’s feelings can better be imagined than described when the final words were said. She was married according to the laws of the universe and to the satisfaction of the immigration authorities.
It is certain that fate plays strange pranks with some people, for, no sooner than Hulda and the Vickingstadt had been pronounced man and wife, than there appeared on the scene the man from Savannah, accompanied by two prominent New Yorkers and the German Consul.