She felt that it was going, going. She prayed that the minister might be quick, while yet she retained a little self-command, and give her an opportunity to utter some binding vow which should make good her solemn engagement, and avert the scandal of the outbreak on the verge of which she was trembling. “Do you,” said the minister to Mr. Whitcomb, “take this woman whom you hold by the hand to be your wife, to honor, protect, and love while you live?” “I do,” replied the bridegroom promptly. “Do you,” said the minister, looking at Mary, “take the man whom you hold by the hand to be your husband, to love and honor while you live?” Mary tried to say “Yes,” but at the effort there surged up against it an opposition that was almost tangible in its overpowering force. No longer merely operating upon her sensibilities, the inexplicable influence that was conquering her now seized on her physical functions, and laid its interdict upon her tongue. Three times she strove to throw off the incubus, to speak, but in vain. Great drops were on her forehead; she was deadly pale, and her eyes were wild and staring; her features twitched as in a spasm, while she stood there struggling with the invisible power that sealed her lips. There was a sudden movement among the spectators; they were whispering together. They saw that something was wrong. “Do you thus promise?” repeated the minister, after a pause. “Nod, if you can't speak,” murmured the bridegroom. His words were the hiss of a serpent in her ears. Her will resisted no longer; her soul was wholly possessed by unreasoning terror of the man and horror of the marriage. “No! no! no!” she screamed in piercing tones, and snatching her hand from the bridegroom, she threw herself upon the breast of the astonished minister, sobbing wildly as she clung to him, “Save me, save me! Take me away! I can't marry him,--I can't! Oh, I can't!” The wedding broke up in confusion, and that is the way, if you choose to think so, that John Lansing, one thousand miles away, saved his wife from marrying another man.