`` And she returned it . I have ever since believed she did , and now I am sure she did . '' `` Heaven help me ! '' said the Carrier . `` This is worse than all . '' `` Constant to her , '' said Edward , `` and returning , full of hope , after many hardships and perils , to redeem my part of our old contract , I heard , twenty miles away , that she was false to me ; that she had forgotten me ; and had bestowed herself upon another and a richer man . I had no mind to reproach her ; but I wished to see her , and to prove beyond dispute that this was true . I hoped she might have been forced into it against her own desire and recollection . It would be small comfort , but it would be some , I thought , and on I came . That I might have the truth , the real truth , observing freely for myself , and judging for myself , without obstruction on the one hand , or presenting my own influence -LRB- if I had any -RRB- before her , on the other , I dressed myself unlike myself -- you know how ; and waited on the road -- you know where . You had no suspicion of me ; neither had -- had she , '' pointing to Dot , `` until I whispered in her ear at that fireside , and she so nearly betrayed me . '' `` But when she knew that Edward was alive , and had come back , '' sobbed Dot , now speaking for herself , as she had burned to do , all through this narrative ; `` and when she knew his purpose , she advised him by all means to keep his secret close ; for his old friend John Peerybingle was much too open in his nature , and too clumsy in all artifice -- being a clumsy man in general , '' said Dot , half laughing and half crying -- `` to keep it for him . And when she -- that 's me , John , '' sobbed the little woman -- `` told him all , and how his sweetheart had believed him to be dead ; and how she had at last been over-persuaded by her mother into a marriage which the silly , dear old thing called advantageous ; and when she -- that 's me again , John -- told him they were not yet married -LRB- though close upon it -RRB- , and that it would be nothing but a sacrifice if it went on , for there was no love on her side ; and when he went nearly mad with joy to hear it , -- then she -- that 's me again -- said she would go between them , as she had often done before in old times , John , and would sound his sweetheart , and be sure that what she -- me again , John -- said and thought was right . And it WAS right , John ! And they were brought together , John ! And they were married , John , an hour ago ! And here 's the Bride ! And Gruff and Tackleton may die a bachelor ! And I 'm a happy little woman , May , God bless you ! '' She was an irresistible little woman , if that be anything to the purpose ; and never so completely irresistible as in her present transports .
There never were congratulations so endearing and delicious as those she lavished on herself and XXXXX the Bride .
after ago as at for if on than though through