included among those accidents!"

A quarter to nine. No one has yet seen the happy couple. Miss Bluett is
in one of the toilet cabinets in the first van, where she is probably
preparing herself. Fulk Ephrinell is perhaps struggling with his cravat
and giving a last polish to his portable jewelry. I am not anxious. We
shall see them as soon as the bell rings.

I have but one regret, and that is that Faruskiar and Ghangir should be
too busy to join us. Why do they continue to look out over the immense
desert? Before their eyes there stretches not the cultivated steppe of
the Lob Nor region, but the Gobi, which is barren, desolate and gloomy,
according to the reports of Grjimailo, Blanc and Martin. It may be
asked why these people are keeping such an obstinate lookout.

"If my presentiments do not deceive me," said Major Noltitz, "there is
some reason for it."

What does he mean? But the bell of the tender, the tender bell, begins
its joyous appeal. Nine o'clock; it is time to go into the dining car.

Caterna comes near me, and I hear him singing:

"It is the turret bell,
Which sud-denly is sounding."

While Madame Caterna replies to the trio of the _Dame Blanche_ by the
refrain of the _Dragons de Villars_:

"And it sounds, sounds, sounds,
It sounds and resounds--"

The passengers move in a procession, the four witnesses first, then the
guests from the end of the village--I mean of the train; Chinese,
Turkomans, Tartars, men and women, all curious to assist at the
ceremony. The four Mongols remain on the last gangway near the treasure
which the Chinese soldiers do not leave for an instant.

We reach the dining car.

The clergyman is seated at the little table, on which is the
certificate of marriage he has prepared according to the customary
form. He looks as though he was accustomed to this sort of thing, which
is as much commercial as matrimonial.

The bride and bridegroom have not appeared.

"Ah!" said I to the actor, "perhaps they have changed their minds."

"If they have," said Caterna, laughing, "the reverend gentleman can
marry me and my wife over again. We are in wedding garments, and it is
a pity to have had all this fuss for nothing, isn't it, Caroline?"

"Yes, Adolphe--"

But this pleasing second edition of the wedding of the Caternas did not
come off. Here is Mr. Fulk Ephrinell, dressed this morning just as