Star.
London, England, 1826-05-22 00:00:00

'allow her to answer immediately. A long pause (which
she will Perfecdy recollect) ensued. At last she said,
"1i you are always as you are now, I hop• to be very
happy With you." But," asked I. what do you be•
lifwe r We bandied these words—hope and believe,
till we both laughed. I could not, expect her to make
an impressive declaration of attachment. I told her I
was satisfied, as her answer left every thing to depend
upon me. I thanked her, kissed her, and encircled her
in my arms ; and from that moment I treated !Ter as

my future wife ; talking to her of the years of enjoy-
ment I promised myself in her society; of my anxious
desire to obtain her tenderest love, and to consult her
welfare and happiness by every means in my power;
of my tender and affectionate feelings towards her, and
of the thousand things that a man would say to his
affianced bride just Isafore their marriage.
In all this I was perfectly sincere. Her admirable
conduct had in a few hours (hours which circumstances
had.spun out to weeks), made me love her more than I
should probably have done after a common acquaintance
of years. Her courage and presence of mind; her good
sense and judgment; her wit and acquirements; her
most gentle and affectionate, yet mo3t happy and
cheerful temper; her helpless situation ; her evid-nt
partiality' for me; the very wrong that but for such par-
tiality I should have been inflicting upon her; all con-
spired to fill me with the strongest emotions of tender-
ness towards her. I swore to myself and to her to render
her the happiest of women, and to make her, as a devoted
husband, more than ample reparation.
This tenderness from me, and the caresses to which
it gave rise, soon restored our cheerfulness. As we
passed the mountains of Westmoreland, we projected a
summer visit to the Lakes. Ne ,r Carlisle, and on the
border, it was impossible to think and speak f and
thing but Waverly and Walter Scott, and the last how
of our journey to Gretna WAS occupied in !ening stories
of the hair-breadth escapes of runaway couples, and in
all but lioiverous mirth at the anticipated surprise of her
Cheshire friends and acquaintances, when they should
hear of her,marriage.
When near Gretna, I found that she was well acquainted with
the marriage service; having, as she told-me, " often read it, little
thinking then that eke should want it so soon."
I, therefore, in order to granty another romantic
whim, took care that the ceremony should be more for-,
mill and solemn than is either necessary or usual at
Gretna. She performed het part in it with the utmost
cheerfulness:-giving steadily, and with. evident signs of
feeling, right answers to the solemn questions of the
marriage service; and, whin I first called her my wife,
she embraced me with as much tenderness as WI had

been the long' eherished object of her choice.
The die was Now irrevocably cut ; bat I bad still three import.
ant ajects is view—to keep my enkagement at Calais •us inform
Mr. Turner, as sum poodble, that his daughter was legally, and
to 'pear as bum* as possible, not ineligibly married ; and if poi- '
Bible, to conceal frown-my wife that I had, in any degree, sinned
against her father%
• I therefore proceeded at went Dover, and sent my brother into
Cheshire, withinstructiona to conceal nothing front Mr. Throw;
but to uige hint to avoid a ptibile scandal, and above all MOEN to
join ate, for his ebild's sake, in maintaining her good opinion of me.
Unfortunately; when my brother reached Shrigley, Mr. Tam O'
was In London; and be was persuaded to trusi an explanation to a
third person, who knew nothing but she bare fact of the marriage. 11
On our journey to .galais, and during our stay there,
my wife's confidenceist me was without limit ; her high
spirits miller increased than dimioiAel; and our mutual
attachment seemed,asiewas, sincere and. unbounded. At
Dover.shepade the acquaintance of some friends of mine,
who crossed the Chivatiel .with.nic and who will bear
witness to • our mutual affection. Calais, though
.a
wretched place, was full of novelty and amusement to
her. There, we passed nearly a week, like any other,
newly married couple, and as if neither she nor I bad
any reason for anxiety.. lodeed,.although occasionally,
I could not but he anxious to learn in what manner
Mr. Tuiner had received my brother's communications,
I was so fully occupied in teaching, dressing, caressing,
and amusing, the. high spirited and affectionate girl,
whose happiness, whatever might be the conduct of her
family, I now considered the first object of my exilt-
ence, that I was indifferent to almost everything but the
actual enjoyment of the moment, of which no one can
imagine the intoxicating nature, who has not, by rare
good fortune, been the first object of a young heart's
legitimate tenderness. And the revolution in her si-
tuation was so complete, converting her in one day from
• scolded or neglected and always restrained school-
, girl; into the earthly idol of a passionate and romantic
husband—that it is not fair to wonder at her having,
under its hippy influence, preferred the vaudeville even
ofa Calais theatre, to the die-aviay songs of a Liverpool
concert, the hasty productions of a tenth rate ntarchand
a modes to the little coal scuttle bonnet and scanty
peliise of a Macclesfield dress maker, and my poor
company to that.of her governess.
• bn.the ISth of March, the Dover packet brought a friend for
whomi war welting, and my wife's uncles.
All the newspaper accounts of our meeting are mere
inventions. They went to the Hotel Meurice, where,
I was 'told, they had asked for me. I proceeded there,
but not finding them, returned to the Hotel Quillacch
and was then informed that Mr. Robert Turner and
Mr. Critchley, together with a lawyer, and several Bow-
street officers, were coming to arrest me on a charge of
abduction, and that Mrs. Turner was dangerously ill.
My carriage and passports were ready, and I could have escaped
to the world's end with my wife; but I really wished to meet her
uncles; and even, if I had not so wished, the accounts of Mrs.
Turner's situation would have fixed me *to the spot.
I sent to Messrs. Turner and Critchley, to say that I
awaited them. When they appeated, I begged for a
short conversation with them before they should see
their niece. My object in desiring to see them first
was, to tell them the whole truth, and to entreat that,
for her sake, they would not, as she was now my wife,
give her a bad opinion-of me. They turned a deaf ear
to all that I could say upon that subject, seemed con-
vinced that the marriage was null and void, and urged
me, in consideration of Mrs. Turner's most dangerous
illness, and Mr. Turner's abject distress, to put no ob-
stacle to the return of their daughter to England I
could not hesitate for an instant; I led her to them, and
left her with them some time... On. my return, I fond
her as much convinced as they were that we *ere
not married.
I then, seeing their misery, hastened to afford them
all the comfort in my power, by taking them into their
niece's bed-room, and assuring them that that was the
first time I had ever entered it. Mr. R. Turner asked
me if I had any objection to write what 1 had stated?
44 Not the 'lightest," I replied, " if you think that it
will be a comfort to Mr. and Mrs. Turner ;" and I im-
mediately wrote a strong declaration to the effect of
what I had just assured them. Mr. R. Turner and Mr.
Critchley will bear witness that I did not do this under
the influence of fear, or to obtain credit or favour for
mysell ; but that, seeing their conviction that no rriar-
riage had taken place, and induced by their repeated
assertions to.entertain myself a doubt upon the ttl. jest,