I obeyed; yet I knew not what I said, so frightened was I. "Who giveth," the Doctor went on, "this woman to be married to this man?" The dirty, battered rogue, the clerk, took my hand and laid it in that of the Doctor. I was given away by the villain Roger. Then the service went on. "With this ring"--the man's hand was holding mine, and it was dry and hot; his face was red and his eyes were staring--"with this ring I thee wed; with my body I thee worship; with all my worldly goods I thee endow." * * * * * Consider--pray consider--that when I took part in this great wickedness, I was but a young girl, not yet seventeen years old; that the thing came upon me so suddenly that I had not the sense to remember what it meant; that my uncle was a man of whom any girl would have been afraid. Yet I knew that I ought to have fled. When my bridegroom held my hand in his I observed that it was hot and trembling; his eyes did not meet mine; he gazed upon the Doctor as if asking what all this meant. I took him, in my innocence, for a madman, and wondered all the more what this freak of the Doctor's could mean. For ring, the Doctor drew from his guest's little finger a diamond ring, which was full large for my third finger. When the service was finished, bride and bridegroom stood stupidly staring at each other (only that still I wore my hood drawn over my face), while Roger placed upon the table a great volume bound in parchment with brass clasps. "This, my lord, is our Register," said the Doctor, opening it at a clean page. "Sign there, if you please, in your usual hand. I will fill in the page afterwards." He took the pen and signed, still looking with wondering eyes. "Now, child," said the Doctor, "do you sign here, after your husband. The certificate you shall have later. For the present, I will take care of it. Other practitioners of the Fleet, my lord," he said, with professional pride, as he looked at his great volume, "would enter your name in a greasy pocket-book and give your wife a certificate on unstamped paper. Here you have a register fit for a cathedral, and a certificate stamped with no less illustrious a name than the Archbishop of Canterbury. Your lordship hath signed your name in a steady and workmanlike fashion, so that none henceforth shall be able to malign your conduct on this day; they shall not say that you were terrified, or bribed, or were in a state of liquor on the day of your marriage; all is free and above suspicion. I congratulate your lordship on this auspicious occasion. Roger, your mark here as witness. So. It is customary, my lord, to present the officiating clergyman, myself, with a fee, from a guinea upwards, proportionate to the rank and station of the happy bridegroom. From your lordship will I take nothing for myself; for the witness I will take a guinea."