ours?'

'They say we are already married.'

'Who?'

'I cannot tell exactly. I heard some whispering to that effect. Somebody
in the village told one of the servants, I believe. This man said that
he was crossing the churchyard early on that unfortunate foggy morning,
and heard voices in the chancel, and peeped through the window as well as
the dim panes would let him; and there he saw you and me and Mr. Bealand,
and so on; but thinking his surmises would be dangerous knowledge, he
hastened on. And so the story got afloat. Then your aunt, too--'

'Good Lord!--what has she done?'

The story was, told her, and she said proudly, "O yes, it is true enough.
I have seen the licence. But it is not to be known yet."'

'Seen the licence? How the--'

'Accidentally, I believe, when your coat was hanging somewhere.'

The information, coupled with the infelicitous word 'proudly,' caused
Nicholas to flush with mortification. He knew that it was in his aunt's
nature to make a brag of that sort; but worse than the brag was the fact
that this was the first occasion on which Christine had deigned to show
her consciousness that such a marriage would be a source of pride to his
relatives--the only two he had in the world.

'You are sorry, then, even to be thought my wife, much less to be it.' He
dropped her hand, which fell lifelessly.

'It is not sorry exactly, dear Nic. But I feel uncomfortable and vexed,
that after screwing up my courage, my fidelity, to the point of going to
church, you should have so muddled--managed the matter that it has ended
in neither one thing nor the other. How can I meet acquaintances, when I
don't know what they are thinking of me?'

'Then, dear Christine, let us mend the muddle. I'll go away for a few
days and get another licence, and you can come to me.'

She shrank from this perceptibly. 'I cannot screw myself up to it a
second time,' she said. 'I am sure I cannot! Besides, I promised Mr.
Bealand. And yet how can I continue to see you after such a rumour? We
shall be watched now, for certain.'

'Then don't see me.'

'I fear I must not for the present. Altogether--'

'What?'

'I am very depressed.'

These views were not very inspiriting to Nicholas, as he construed them.
It may indeed have been possible that he construed them wrongly, and
should have insisted upon her making the rumour true. Unfortunately,
too, he had come to her in a hurry through brambles and briars,