"No, no, little one, I have no time
for bride scruples and coyness; I have to train three dull-headed
louts to be Shem, Ham, and Japhet before dark. Hast confessed of
late?"
"This morning, but--" said Christina, and "This morning," to her
great joy, said Eberhard, and, in her satisfaction thereat, her
second "but" was not followed up.
The friar asked their names, and both gave the Christian name alone;
then the brief and simple rite was solemnized in its shortest form.
Christina had, by very force of surprise and dismay, gone through all
without signs of agitation, except the quivering of her whole frame,
and the icy coldness of the hand, where Eberhard had to place the
ring on each finger in turn.
But each mutual vow was a strange relief to her long-tossed and
divided mind, and it was rest indeed to let her affection have its
will, and own him indeed as a protector to be loved instead of
shunned. When all was over, and he gathered the two little cold
hands into his large one, his arm supporting her trembling form, she
felt for the moment, poor little thing, as if she could never be
frightened again.
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