up with a joke the confusion that must ensue.

Very few people came to the wedding, for Stella had insisted that as
none of her girl friends were reputable enough to be bridesmaids, she
must do without them. Mrs. Ross came, however, and she brought with her
Kenneth to be a solemn and freckled and carroty page. She was very
anxious that Michael should come back after the wedding to Cobble Place,
but he said he would rather wait until after Christmas. Nancy came, and
Michael tried to remember if he had once seriously contemplated marrying
her. How well he remembered her in short skirts, and here she was a
woman of thirty with a brusque jolly manner and gold pince-nez.

"You _are_ a brute always to avoid my visits at Cobble Place," grumbled
Nancy. "Do you realize we haven't met for years?"

"You're such a woman of affairs," said Michael.

"Well, do let's try to meet next time. I say, don't you think Maud looks
terribly ill since she became a Romanist?"

Michael looked across to where Mrs. Ross was standing.

"I think she's looking rather well."

"Absolute destruction of individuality, you know," said Nancy, shaking
her head. "I was awfully sick about that business. However, I must admit
that she hasn't forced her religion down our throats."

"Did you expect an auto-da-fe in the middle of the lawn?" he asked. She
thumped him on the shoulder:

"Silly ass! Don't you try to rag me."

They had a jolly talk, but Michael was glad he had not married her at
eight years old. He decided that by now he would probably have regretted
the step.

Michael managed to get two or three minutes alone with Stella after the
ceremony.

"Well, Mrs. Prescott-Merivale?"

"You've admitted I'm a married woman," she exclaimed. "Now surely you
can tell me what you've been doing since August and where you've been."

"I thought very fondly that you were without the curiosity of every
woman," said Michael. "Alas, you are not!"

"Michael, you're perfectly horrid to me."

"Don't be too much the young wife," he advised, with mocking
earnestness.

"I won't listen to anything you say, until I know where you've been. Of
course, if I hadn't been so busy, I could easily have found you out."

"Not even can you sting me into the revelation of my hiding-place,"
Michael laughed.

"You shan't stay with us at Hardingham unless you tell me."

"By the time you come back from your honeymoon, I may have wonderful
news," said Michael. "Oh, and by th