here
business was concerned--although I am sure he was fond of me." Her eyes
filled with tears, not at the recollection of his kindness, but at the
humiliation she experienced at playing a part in which she had no heart.
It made her feel inexpressibly mean and small.

"That is all," said Mr. Debenham. "I shall see you at the registrar's
office."

She nodded.

"May I express the hope," he said, in his heavy manner, "that your life
will be a very happy one, and that your marriage will prove all you hope
it will be?"

"I hardly know what I hope it will be," she said wearily, as she
accompanied him to the door.

That good man shook his head sadly as he made his way back to his
office.

Was there ever so unromantic and prosaic affair as this marriage,
thought Doris, as she stepped into the taxicab which was to convey her
to the registrar's office? She had had her dreams, as other girls had
had, of that wonderful day when with pealing of the organ she would walk
up the aisle perhaps upon the arm of Gregory Farrington, to a marriage
which would bring nothing but delight and happiness. And here was the
end of her dreams, a great heiress and a beautiful girl rocking across
London in a hired cab to a furtive marriage.

Frank was waiting for her on the pavement outside the grimy little
office. Mr. Debenham was there, and a clerk he had brought with him as
witness. The ceremony was brief and uninteresting; she became Mrs.
Doughton before she quite realized what was happening.

"There is only one thing to do now," said the lawyer as they stood
outside again on the sunlit pavement.

He looked at his watch.

"We had best go straight away to the London Safe Deposit, and, if you
will give me the authority, I will take formal possession of your
fortune and place it in the hands of my bankers. I think these things
had better be done regularly."

The girl acquiesced.

Frank was singularly silent during the drive; save to make some comment
upon the amount of traffic in the streets, he did not speak to her and
she was grateful for his forbearance. Her mind was in a turmoil; she was
married--that was all she knew--married to somebody she liked but did
not love. Married to a man who had been chosen for her partly against
her will. She glanced at him out of the corners of her eyes; if she was
joyless, no less was he. It was an inauspicious beginning to a married
life which would end who knew how? Before the depressing granite f