"
"Say on, young lady," said the judge.
And as she stood there in her deep mourning dress, with her fair
hair unbound and floating softly around her pale, sweet face, every
eye in that court was spellbound by her almost unearthly beauty.
Before proceeding with what she was about to say, she turned upon
Traverse a look that brought him immediately to her side.
"Your honor," she began, in a low, sweet, clear tone, "I owe it to
Doctor Rocke here present, who has been sadly misrepresented to you,
to say (what, under less serious circumstances, my girl's heart
would shrink from avowing so publicly) that I am his betrothed wife-
-sacredly betrothed to him by almost the last act of my dear
father's life. I hold this engagement to be so holy that no earthly
tribunal can break or disturb it. And while I bend to your honor's
decision, and yield myself to the custody of my legal guardian for
the period of my minority, I here declare to all who may be
interested, that I hold my hand and heart irrevocably pledged to
Doctor Rocke, and that, as his betrothed wife, I shall consider
myself bound to correspond with him regularly, and to receive him as
often as he shall seek my society, until my majority, when I and all
that I possess will become his own. And these words I force myself
to speak, your honor, both in justice to my dear lost father and his
friend, Traverse Rocke, and also to myself, that hereafter no one
may venture to accuse me of clandestine proceedings, or distort my
actions into improprieties, or in any manner call in question the
conduct of my father's daughter.
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