'eard o' young women puttin' off
their weddin's so long that in the end they've never took place at all.
I've 'ad it 'appen to myself, so I _know_.'

'Elizabeth,' I interposed, 'we don't want your advice. Go away at
once.'

'I ain't done yet. You'll be glad o' my advice in the end. Experience
'elps a lot. Some men wot's goin' to be married gets a sort o' funk at
the last minnit and, bless you, they'd wriggle out o' it, yes, even if
they was goin' to marry an angel out o' 'eaven. My friend's 'usband
was one o' them sort--wanted to stop the 'ole thing with the weddin'
cake ordered, an' lodgings taken at Margate for the 'oneymoon. But she
'eld 'im to it--stuck to 'im like grim death until' e'd gone through
with it. An' now 'e often ses 'e never regrets it for a minnit.'

Marion looked up hopefully. 'Perhaps you're right, Elizabeth.'

'O' course I'm right,' she asserted, throwing a triumphant glance at me
as she retired.

'These tactics may be all very well for the lower classes,' I said to
Marion when we were alone, 'but I'm not quite sure whether they'd
answer in every case. No, Marion dear, if William wants to postpone
the wedding, it must be done.'

Her face fell at once, and she looked so dejected I felt troubled.

'If you like I will talk to William and try to discover the reason for
his change of plan,' I conceded reluctantly, 'but you must understand,
dear, that nothing will make me interfere with the natural course of
events.'

Rather to my surprise, William touched on the subject the next time he
came to see me. We were sitting alone and I was mentally noting his
air of depression, when he suddenly burst out: 'Tell me, frankly, do
you think a man is justified in--er--postponing a great event in his
life--such as, say, his wedding, if he feels uncertain?'

'Uncertain about what?' I asked gently.

'About himself--and everything, you know. True, Johnson has said that
marriage is one of the means of happiness--a sentiment delivered, no
doubt, by the great master when he was in a light vein--but supposing a
man is not sure that he can make a woman happy----'

'And supposing instead of the hypothetical man and woman you are
speaking of, we simply quote the case of you and Marion,' I interposed.
'Am I to understand that you do not wish to marry her?'

He started. 'It isn't exactly that. But at the--er--time
I--er--offered myself to Marion I had not weighed all the
possibilities. To be perfec