, showed him many visions on that golden
September afternoon.

He saw the old grey church decked with flowers, saw the sunlight
filtering through the famous Burne-Jones window in a splash of gorgeous
blue and crimson, staining the white petals of the big lilies in the
chancel ... he heard the peals of the organ as the choristers broke out
into the hymn which heralded the bride ... saw the bride herself, a
little pale, a little serious, in her white robes, in her eyes the grave
and tender look whose possibility he had long ago divined....

Oh, he was a fool to let his imagination torment him so ... and he
sprang to his feet, determined to put an end to these maddening visions
which only unfitted him for the stern and hopeless battle which was all
that he could look forward to henceforth....

As he moved impatiently towards the door a sudden peal of bells rang out
gaily, exultantly on the soft and balmy air; and his face turned grey as
he realized that this was the signal which betokened that Iris was now
the wife of Bruce Cheniston, his to have and to hold, irrevocably his
until death should intervene to end their dual existence....

* * * * *

With a muttered oath he strode out of the house, and making his way
round to the garage ordered his car to be brought forth immediately.

When it came he flung himself into the steering seat and drove away at
such a pace that Andrews, his outdoor man and general factotum, looked
after him anxiously.

"Looks like getting his licence endorsed," he observed to the pretty
housemaid, Alice, who was watching her master's departure from a
convenient window. "Never saw him drive so reckless--he's generally what
you might call a very considerate driver."

"Considerate? What of?" asked Alice ungrammatically. "The dogs and
chickens in the road, d'you mean?"

"Dogs and chickens! Good Lord, no!" Andrews was a born mechanician, and
it was a constant source of regret to him that Anstice generally drove
the car himself. "They're nothing but a nuisance anyway. No, I meant he
considered the car--but he don't look much like it to-day."

"Oh, the car!" Alice was openly scornful. "Well, from the pace he went
off just now, I should think he'll smash up your precious old car before
he goes far. And no loss either," said Alice, who was engaged to a
soldier in a cavalry regiment, and therefore disdained all purely
mechanical means of locomotion.

*