doggedly up the road, thinking in a confused
fashion as he ran. At first he thought that Joe had blundered; then,
as he remembered his manner and his apparent haste to get rid of him,
amazement and anger jostled each other in his mind. Out of breath, his
pace slackened to a walk, and then broke into a run again as he turned
the corner, and the church came into view.

There was a small cluster of people in the porch, which was at once
reduced by two, and a couple of carriages drawn up against the curb. He
arrived breathless and peered in. A few spectators were in the seats,
but the chancel was empty.

"They're gone into the vestry," whispered an aged but frivolous woman,
who was grimly waiting with a huge bag of rice.

Flower turned white. No efforts of his could avail now, and he smiled
bitterly as he thought of his hardships of the past year. There was a
lump in his throat, and a sense of unreality about the proceedings which
was almost dream-like. He looked up the sunny road with its sleepy,
old-time houses, and then at the group standing in the porch, wondering
dimly that a deformed girl on crutches should be smiling as gaily as
though the wedding were her own, and that yellow, wrinkled old women
should wilfully come to remind themselves of their long-dead youth. His
whole world seemed suddenly desolate and unreal, and it was only borne
in upon him slowly that there was no need now for his journey to London
in search of Poppy, and that henceforth her movements could possess no
interest for him. He ranged himself quietly with the bystanders and, not
without a certain dignity, waited.

It seemed a long time. The horses champed and rattled their harness. The
bystanders got restless. Then there was a movement.

He looked in the church again and saw them coming down the aisle:
Fraser, smiling and erect, with Poppy's little hand upon his arm. She
looked down at first, smiling shyly, but as they drew near the door gave
her husband a glance such as Flower had never seen before. He caught his
breath then, and stood up erect as the bridegroom himself, and as they
reached the door they both saw him at the same instant. Poppy, with a
startled cry of joy and surprise, half drew her arm from her husband's;
Fraser gazed at him as on one risen from the dead.

For a space they regarded each other without a word, then Fraser, with
his wife on his arm, took a step towards him. Flower still regarding
them steadily, drew back a li