“Estelle, my beloved, look up! I hold you as my dear and honored wife, in whose cause it is both my duty and inclination to risk, if needed, life and fortune, and sacred honor. Estelle, beloved! you know that Baron Dazzleright is at this time esteemed the most eminent lawyer in the kingdom. His legal opinion is considered of the very first importance. He holds the secret marriage into which you, as an infant, were entrapped, ten years since, to be perfectly void; and, on the other hand, the marriage solemnized between us this day, to be perfectly valid. His opinion upon the validity of our marriage, supported by the authorities he adduces, and the developments of the last two hours, has decided my course. I stand upon the legality of the ceremony this day performed in the church of Hyde; I claim the rights of a husband to protect and shelter you; and here pledge my life if needful, my fortune, my unblemished name and sacred honor to bear you blameless through, the severe ordeal. Therefore, _Lady Montressor_, do not again seek to cast off the support that is most righteously your own, nor the honorable name that does not deserve repudiation at your hands. Remember, that it is your _husband_ who requires this of you!” Lord Montressor spoke with an air of beautifully blended deference, tenderness, and dignity, almost impossible to resist. Lord Dazzleright’s fine face beamed with sympathetic admiration—and clasping the hand of the noble speaker, he said— “God bless you, Lord Montressor, for you are very right! and if there is a man—peer, or prince—in the empire who could take, unquestioned, the position that you now take and discharge with delicacy and discretion, its difficult duties, that man is your lordship. God bless you?” But all this while Estelle, with her clasped hands hanging down, her head drooped upon her breast, and her eyes lowered to the ground, remained in mournful silence. Nor did she once change her position, or look up, or speak, until the magistrate called the two sureties to sign the recognizance that was now ready. The two clergymen advanced to the table. Lord Dazzleright also followed, and she was left standing alone, or guarded, as it were, by Lord Montressor. “Has my Stella no word or glance for me?” he inquired. “Oh! my Lord—my lord—do you not _know_ then that poor Estelle’s soul is at your feet, in acknowledgment of your matchless constancy! But, Lord Montressor, it must not be as you have said. I may not lean upon your noble strength, nor bear your honored name, and will not, my lord—_will not_,” said Estelle, with mournful dignity. “Does my dearest Stella, my gentle _bride_,—with all her graces,—lack the lovely grace of submission?” “Poor Estelle, your _servant_, my lord, possesses with all her faults and weaknesses, the capacity and strength to suffer alone, alone! rather than drag one whom she honors down to share her degradation.”