300 MATRIMONY AND MOONSHINE. 



" You will not impute this yielding to light love ?'* she whispered, 

 as her full languishing eye rested upon Evergreen. 



" In truth, fair Montague, I am too fond, 

 And therefore thou raay'st think my 'haviour light: 

 But trust me, gentleman, I'll prove more true 

 Than those who have more cunning to he strange. 

 I should have been more strange, I must confess, 

 But " 



Here the enraptured Matthew could restrain himself no longer ; 

 interrupting the quotation, just as luck would have it, where it ceased 

 to be applicable. If his memory had been fortunately well stored 

 with the gems of poetry, he would doubtless have enacted Romeo to 

 the life ; as it was, he was obliged to confine himself to plain mattert 

 o'-fact prose, in which he proposed to " consult his mother" on the 

 subject of an early marriage. 



Now, whether it was, that Jemima anticipated some prudent ob- 

 jections on the part of that elderly individual, and doubted how far 

 the constancy of her lover would resist and overcome the obstacles 

 thus thrown in his way ; or w r hether, like the young lady in the play, 

 she had a natural and intuitive aversion to a marriage preceded by 

 the consent of parents, and other hum-drum formalities, certain it is, 

 that she contrived by starting an objection to one thing, and feigning 

 a reluctance to another, to suggest to Matthew's mind what certes 

 would never have entered it without foreign aid the idea of an elope- 

 ment. No sooner, however, had the idea insinuated itself through the 

 recesses of his pericranium than he was enraptured with it, the more 

 particularly as he took the credit of it entirely to himself, and became 

 enamoured of it as of his own offspring. It saved him, in truth, from 

 an infinity of embarrassments ; a declaration to his mother, whose re- 

 proofs he yet dreaded, and the quizzing of his friends. He now 

 pleaded so vehemently in favour of Gretna Green, that Jemima con- 

 ceded, with all proper reluctance, to her own proposition ; and it was 

 finally agreed that at four o'clock on the following morning, every ar- 

 rangement being previously made, Matthew should be waiting for her 

 at an appointed place. Mrs. Golightly, whose walk had been most 

 conveniently prolonged to an unusually late hour, now bid adieu to 

 her friends, and, taking her daughter's arm proceeded homeward. 



CHAP. IV. THE ELOPEMENT. 



LONG before the appointed hour the impatient Matthew w r as at his 

 post. Jemima, too, long before the dawn, was all equipped, and 

 waiting, with palpitating heart, for the moment of departure. The 

 protracted walk of the preceding evening had taken her mother 

 early to bed, and " both time and place did then adhere" for making 

 those trifling preparations which the journey required. At last the 

 tedious clock struck four, and with a light and fairy step she de- 

 scended the stairs ; no obstacle stood in her way ; bolts and bars 

 shrank beneath her touch, and in a moment she found herself by the 

 side of Matthew, and travelling towards Scotland as quickly as four 

 fleet horses could carry them. 



