He looked sharply at Mrs. Brinkley, as if to question how much she knew;
but she had now measured him, and she said, "Oh! then the visit's to
me?"

"Entirely," cried Dan. The old sweetness came into his laughing eyes
again, and went to Mrs. Brinkley's heart. She wished him to be happy,
somehow; she would have done anything for him; she wished she knew what
to do. Ought she to tell him the Pasmers were there? Ought she to make
up some excuse and get him away before he met them? She felt herself
getting more and more bewildered and helpless. Those women might come
round that corner any moment and then she know the first sight of
Alice's face would do or undo everything with Dan. Did she wish them
reconciled? Did she wish them for ever parted? She no longer knew what
she wished; she only knew that she had no right to wish anything. She
continued to talk on with Dan, who grew more and more at ease, and did
most of the talking, while Mrs. Brinkley's whole being narrowed itself
to the question. Would the Pasmers come back that way, or would they go
round the further corner, and get into the hotel by another door?

The suspense seemed interminable; they must have already gone that other
way. Suddenly she heard the pushing back of chairs in that recess. She
could not bear it. She jumped to her feet.

"Just wait a moment, Mr. Mavering! I'll join you again. Mr. Brinkley is
expecting--I must--"

*****

One morning of the following June Mrs. Brinkley sat well forward in the
beautiful church where Dan and Alice were to be married. The lovely day
became a still lovelier day within, enriched by the dyes of the stained
windows through which it streamed; the still place was dim yet bright
with it; the figures painted on the walls had a soft distinctness;
a body of light seemed to irradiate from the depths of the dome like
lamp-light.

There was a subdued murmur of voices among the people in the pews: they
were in a sacred edifice without being exactly at church, and they might
talk; now and then a muffled, nervous laugh escaped. A delicate scent
of flowers from the masses in the chancel mixed with the light and the
prevailing silence. There was a soft, continuous rustle of drapery as
the ladies advanced up the thickly carpeted aisles on the arms of the
young ushers and compressed themselves into place in the pews.

Two or three people whom she did not know were put into the pew with
Mrs. Brinkley, but she