“If you will wait a few minutes till we can find a minister, I will say, ‘This, sir, is my wedded wife,’” I declared manfully.
“And is the young lady of the same mind?” quoth my Lord, with a quick, gleg slyness.
“I am, sir—if the business concerns you!” said Irma, looking straight at him.
“What, and dare you say that you will take a man like this for your wedded husband?” he demanded, with the swift up-and-down play of his bushy brows which was habitual to him.
“I see not what business it is of yours,” Irma answered, as sharply, “but I do take him for my husband.”
“There!” cried the lawyer, pulling out his snuffbox and tapping it vehemently, “it is done. I have performed my first marriage, and all the General Assembly, or the Gretna Green Welder himself, could not have done it neater or made a better job. Declaration before witnesses being sufficient in the eye of the law of Scotland, I declare you two man and wife!”
Irma looked distressed.
“But I do not feel in the least married,” she said; “I must have a minister!”
“You can have all the ministers in Edinburgh, my lass, but you have been duly wedded already in the presence of the first legal authority of your kingdom, not to mention that of the Lady Frances Kirkpatrick——”
“My aunt Frances, after all!” cried Irma, suddenly flushing.