and so disappointed. I sat
right down on the rustic seat behind me and burst into tears, as the
story-books say.

"Oh, don't cry, dearie," said the young lady in a very different voice
from the one she had used before. She sat down beside me and put her
arms around me. "We'll take you over to Marsden if you've got off at
the wrong station."

"But it will be too late," I sobbed wildly. "The wedding is to be at
twelve--and it's nearly that now--and oh, Johnny, I do think you might
try to comfort me!"

For Johnny had stuck his hands in his pockets and turned his back
squarely on me. I thought it so unkind of him. I didn't know then that
it was because he was afraid he was going to cry right there before
everybody, and I felt deserted by all the world.

"Tell me all about it," said the young lady.

So I told her as well as I could all about the wedding and how wild we
were to see it and why we were running away to it.

"And now it's all no use," I wailed. "And we'll be punished when they
find out just the same. I wouldn't mind being punished if we hadn't
missed the wedding. We've never seen a wedding--and Pamelia was to
wear a white silk dress--and have flower girls--and oh, my heart is
just broken. I shall never get over this--never--if I live to be as
old as Methuselah."

"What can we do for them?" said the young lady, looking up at the
young man and smiling a little. She seemed to have forgotten that they
had just quarrelled. "I can't bear to see children disappointed. I
remember my own childhood too well."

"I really don't know what we can do," said the young man, smiling
back, "unless we get married right here and now for their sakes. If it
is a wedding they want to see and nothing else will do them, that is
the only idea I can suggest."

"Nonsense!" said the young lady. But she said it as if she would
rather like to be persuaded it wasn't nonsense.

I looked up at her. "Oh, if you have any notion of being married I
wish you would right off," I said eagerly. "Any wedding would do just
as well as Pamelia's. Please do."

The young lady laughed.

"One might just as well be married at two hours' notice as two days',"
she said.

"Una," said the young man, bending towards her, "will you marry me
here and now? Don't send me away alone to the other side of the world,
Una."

"What on earth would Auntie say?" said Una helplessly.

"Mrs. Franklin wouldn't object if you told her you were going to be
married