Page:Salem - a tale of the seventeenth century (IA taleseventeenth00derbrich).pdf/324

 the postponement of his marriage might be prolonged for years. Under these circumstances he had persuaded Alice to consent to a private marriage; but this, though necessarily kept from the knowledge of his father, had been duly solemnized by his own clergyman, in the presence of his two uncles (who fully approved of it), and two or three other material witnesses.

He told her of his distress when his father concluded to go abroad for change of climate, and strenuously demanded he should accompany him, which he could not evade without declaring the fact of his marriage, which he dared not venture to do.

He told her of his deep grief and despair when in a foreign land he received the terrible tidings of his young wife's sudden death; of his heart-felt craving to know more; of the many letters which he had addressed to Mrs. Campbell, imploring her to give him the most minute details of all that related to his wife's sickness and death, but which had been all unanswered.