Page:Cuthbert Bede - The White Wife.djvu/30

Rh the life out of her for a time, and she fainted. When she came to herself again, the young man had gone, having agreed that the father should meet him at the place where the pretended marriage had taken place, and there be certified as to its illegality. The old man still thought that the farmer's son was putting a deception upon him in this matter, and that the wedding had been a full and binding one; but the poor young girl felt that she had been deceived, and gave up all hope.

When the old man met the farmer's son, and when, against his own inclinations, it had been fully proved to him that there never had been a real legal marriage between his daughter and her lover, he struck him, in his fury, with his staff, and would have done him more mischief if he had not been forcibly restrained by those present. He threw back the gold pieces that the young man had given him for the child's support, spurning them with the same contempt that he spurned their giver; and said, "I came for honest actions, not for foul insults." The farmer's son took up the gold, and put it into his pocket, with a laugh, saying, "It will serve to purchase the wedding-ring for New Year's Day."