"No," he said, "only time to feel."
"Don't speak of that day," and she shuddered. "If I were to live a thousand years, there never could be another so horrible."
He had risen to go. He stood a moment silent. Then:
"You are so reassuring," he said. "Yet, how can either of us be assured? Perhaps you are my wife."
"Never," she said, and looked at him with a sudden coldness in her face.
"If a minister has married us," he answered, "nobody has yet unmarried us."
The gravity of her expression impressed him.
"God has not married us," she said. "I shall never admit that." There was a moment's silence. "Poor Katie!" she added.
"Yes, poor Katie,—and Mistress Royal."
Elizabeth smiled sadly.