Badger told me once, he and his wife ran away and got married by a justice of the peace.
If you never witnessed a civil marriage by an alderman, a mayor, or some such officer authorized to deal out bliss in double harness, well, you don't know what you've missed, that's all.
The first time a magistrate has to officiate upon such a happy occasion, one can hardly blame him for being kind of nervous.
A good fairy sent me to the office of a friend, who is a justice, and it happened he was tying his first double knot.
Having been duly coached, he opened the proceedings all right, and fancied he had plain sailing.
The woman had been duly asked whether she would take the aforesaid man to be her husband, and as that was the identical reason why she was there, she hastened to say that she had no objections, and at the same time took a firmer hold on his arm, as though determined not to let him get away from her.
Then the magistrate turned to the groom and pierced him with his eagle eye.
Perhaps he was so accustomed to having appeals made to him in his official capacity, that it came very natural for him to remark: