For Life and Death

It is far easier to say 'for ever and ever', standing as you think you do now on the brink of eternity, than to say 'till death do us part', looking down a long and weary road of toil and sickness and poverty and change and little vexations. You do not only take this woman, young and blooming, but old and sick and withered and wearied, perhaps. Do you take her for any lot?

—Edward Eggleston, The End of the World: A Love Story.