t immediately afterwards, young, lovely, with the
air of a queen passing through her subjects. Dick Guyes at the altar was
shaking with nervousness, but Ina was supremely self-possessed. She even
sent a smile of casual greeting to Piers as she went.

She maintained her attitude of complete _sang-froid_ throughout the
service, and Piers watched her critically with that secret smile at the
corners of his lips which was not good to see.

He did not seem aware of anyone else in the church till the service was
over, and the strains of the Wedding March were crashing through the
building. Then very suddenly he turned and looked at his wife--with that
in his dark eyes that thrilled her to the soul.

A man's voice accosted him somewhat abruptly. "Are you Sir Piers Evesham?
I'm the best man. They want you to sign the register."

Piers started as one rudely awakened from an entrancing dream. An
impatient exclamation rose to his lips which he suppressed rather badly.
He surveyed the man who addressed him with a touch of hauteur.

Avery surveyed him also, and as not very favourably impressed. He was a
small man with thick sandy eyebrows and shifty uncertain eyes. He looked
hard at Piers in answer to the latter's haughty regard, and Avery became
aware of a sudden sharp change in his demeanour as he did so. He opened
his eyes and stared in blank astonishment.

"Hullo!" he ejaculated softly. "You!"

"What do you mean?" demanded Piers.

It was a challenge, albeit spoken in an undertone. He stood like a man
transfixed as he uttered it. There came to Avery a quick hot impulse to
intervene, to protect him from some hidden danger, she knew not what,
that had risen like a serpent in his path. But before she could take any
action, the critical moment was passed. Piers had recovered himself.

He stepped forward. "All right. I will come," he said.

She watched him move away in the direction of the vestry with that free,
proud gait of his, and a great coldness came down upon her, wrapping her
round, penetrating to her very soul. Who was that man with the shifty
eyes? Why had he stared at Piers so? Above all, why had Piers stood with
that stiff immobility of shock as though he had been stabbed in the back?

A voice spoke close to her. "Lady Evesham, come and wait by the door!
There is more air there."

She turned her head mechanically, and looked at Lennox Tudor with eyes
that saw not. There was a singing in her ears that made the cr