We can be united--we can be married--here before we start--and you will not be cruel enough to refuse.

You will consent, will you not, to be my wife before we fly from the Kosekin ?" At this Almah's face became suffused with smiles and blushes.

Her arms were about me, and she did not draw away, but looked up in sweet confusion and said, "Why, as to that--I--I cannot be more your--your wife than I am." "What do you mean ?" I exclaimed, in wonder.

"My wife!" Her eyes dropped again, and she whispered: "The ceremony of separation is with the Kosekin the most sacred form of marriage.

It is the religious form; the other is merely the civil form." This was unintelligible, nor did I try to understand it.