It was midnight, the fire in the bridal chamber brightly blazed, and the wax-lights shot forth their brilliant beams. Sir David seated himself on a chair beside the bed, and having gently drawn aside the curtain, he affectionately embraced his bride, while he kindly said, "My dear Adelaide, I always have been of opinion that no secret nor mystery should ever exist between man and wife. I know, my love, that your understanding ranks too high, your love for me is too great, and your opinion of my character is too elevated ever to induce you, in any shape or form, to pry into what I may not think necessary to disclose. For indeed _you_ do not aspire to that _superior wisdom_ which some of your sex rather somewhat too confidently and arrogantly assume; the true term and appellation of which properly should be called _not_ wisdom, but _superior curiosity_! But, my dear love, in strictest verity I may say of thee, before our happy union, in foreign realms, and in perilous tracts over land and ocean, that I have ever witnessed thy equanimity of temper, and always have found thee one and the same;--ever unchanged and unchangeable! and indeed I know no one (not even your noble and highly gifted mother) who could, with more propriety than yourself, assume the motto of the virgin queen--
"Oh, my dear husband!" rejoined Adelaide, "although delighted ever to hear _your_ praise, yet when you would overstep the due and meet boundaries of discretion, and, forsooth, make of me an ideal goddess, it is meet and due time, that stepping down from the lofty pedestal whereon thou hast been graciously pleased to rear thy fond idol, for me to intrude a word or two, if it were but to dispel the charm which fascinates thee, recall thy wandering thoughts from paradise to earth, and convince thee, at least, that I am but a mere mortal; and, moreover, a woman to boot, with all a woman's faults--yea, too, my love, with all a woman's fondness, and the love that no tongue can utter; and thus I swear it upon thy beloved lips, my first, my only love!"
"Oh, my adorable Adelaide," he said, while he met the fond embrace, "let this blessed moment be ever sacred in our recollection! dawning with hope and promised joy on all our future days. Oh, my Adelaide, imperishable let this happy, too happy hour remain, and ever marked and stamped by a holy communion of heart and mind! Your taste shall be mine, your liking shall be my liking, your joy be my joy, and your sorrows (if ever they come) shall be all mine own!--thy disgrace would become my disgrace, and mine would be attended with yours! But now I only look upon the happy obverse of the medal, when I pause on your beauty, your accomplishments, your virtue, and your religion! for without the latter a woman is a monster, and man little less than a demon. You must now permit me to say, that you are the theme of every tongue, the charm of every eye, the idol of every heart, and the bright ornament of every circle, that might fairly, at thy throne,