midnight
Elsie persistently clung to Vashti , and verily there seems a grim fitness in her selection , -- a dismal analogy between my blasted life and that of the discrowned Persian Queen . Be that as it may , if I miss a name I surely shall not miss the equity that man denies me . ' _ So long as ye both shall live _ . ' When I look out in springtime , over the blossoming earth , daisies , and violets , and primroses range themselves into lines that spell out these hated words of an ever-echoing vow , and if , in midnight hours , I raise my weary eyes , the sleepless stars revengefully group themselves , and flash back to me , in burning characters , ' _ Till death us do part _ . ' Up yonder , behind sun , and planet , and nebulæ , I shall look God in the face , and pointing to my withered heart and blighted life , can say truly , ` At least I kept the ruins free from perjury ; there , at your feet , is the oath unsullied , that I called you to accept on the awful day when I knelt at your altar . ' Love , honor , and obedience , Maurice Carlyle 's unworthiness rendered impossible ; but the vow which consecrated and set me apart , which forbade the thought that other men might offer homage and affection , or even ordinary tributes of admiration , I have kept sacredly and faithfully . I might have plunged into the whirlpool of fashionable life , and found temporary oblivion of my humiliation and disappointment ; but from such a career my whole being revolted , and in seclusion I have dragged out a dreary series of years that can scarcely be termed life .