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When I came to myself again Father Dan was saying:
"Think what marriage means to a woman--a young girl especially. It means
the breaking of old ties, the beginning of a new life, the setting out
into an unknown world on a voyage from which there can be no return. In
her weakness and her helplessness she leaves one dependency for another,
the shelter of a father for the shelter of a husband. What does she
bring to the man she marries? Herself, everything she is, everything
she can be, to be made or marred by him, and never, never, never to be
the same to any other man whatsoever as long as life shall last."
More than ever now, but for other reasons, I wanted to fly from the
room.
"Friends," cried Father Dan, "we don't know much of the bridegroom in
this parish, but we know the bride. We've known her all her life. We
know what she is. I do, anyway. If you are her father, Mr. O'Neill, sir,
I am her father also. I was in this house when she was born. I baptized
her. I took her out of the arms of the angel who bore her.


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