But whether or no the event
should justify him he would virtually have done her a wrong, and the
wrong was of the sort that women remember best. As Osmond's wife she
could never again be his friend. If in this character she should enjoy
the felicity she expected, she would have nothing but contempt for the
man who had attempted, in advance, to undermine a blessing so dear;
and if on the other hand his warning should be justified the vow she
had taken that he should never know it would lay upon her spirit
such a burden as to make her hate him. So dismal had been, during
the year that followed his cousin's marriage, Ralph's prevision of the
future; and if his meditations appear morbid we must remember he was
not in the bloom of health. He consoled himself as he might by
behaving (as he deemed) beautifully, and was present at the ceremony
by which Isabel was united to Mr. Osmond, and which was performed in
Florence in the month of June. He learned from his mother that
Isabel at first had thought of celebrating her nuptials in her
native land, but that as simplicity was what she chiefly desired to
secure she had finally decided, in spite of Osmond's professed
willingness to make a journey of any length, that this
characteristic would be best embodied in their being married by the
nearest clergyman in the shortest time.
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