When he had said thus he comes upstairs, and I was by that time come
out of my room; so he tells me the minister was below, and that he had
talked with him, and that upon showing him the license, he was free to
marry us with all his heart, 'but he asks to see you'; so he asked if I
would let him come up.
''Tis time enough,' said I, 'in the morning, is it not?' 'Why,' said
he, 'my dear, he seemed to scruple whether it was not some young girl
stolen from her parents, and I assured him we were both of age to
command our own consent; and that made him ask to see you.' 'Well,'
said I, 'do as you please'; so up they brings the parson, and a merry,
good sort of gentleman he was. He had been told, it seems, that we had
met there by accident, that I came in the Chester coach, and my
gentleman in his own coach to meet me; that we were to have met last
night at Stony-Stratford, but that he could not reach so far. 'Well,
sir,' says the parson, 'every ill turn has some good in it. The
disappointment, sir,' says he to my gentleman, 'was yours, and the good
turn is mine, for if you had met at Stony-Stratford I had not had the
honour to marry you. Landlord, have you a Common Prayer Book?' I started as if I had been frightened. 'Lord, sir,' says I, 'what do
you mean? What, to marry in an inn, and at night too?' 'Madam,' says
the minister, 'if you will have it be in the church, you shall; but I
assure you your marriage will be as firm here as in the church; we are
not tied by the canons to marry nowhere but in the church; and if you
will have it in the church, it will be a public as a county fair; and
as for the time of day, it does not at all weigh in this case; our
princes are married in their chambers, and at eight or ten o'clock at
night.' I was a great while before I could be persuaded, and pretended not to
be willing at all to be married but in the church. But it was all
grimace; so I seemed at last to be prevailed on, and my landlord and
his wife and daughter were called up. My landlord was father and clerk
and all together, and we were married, and very merry we were; though I
confess the self-reproaches which I had upon me before lay close to me,
and extorted every now and then a deep sigh from me, which my
bridegroom took notice of, and endeavoured to encourage me, thinking,
poor man, that I had some little hesitations at the step I had taken so
hastily.