to the church. For God's sake let me get a glimpse of
one friendly face. I'll be scared to death. You know I'm not used to
this."

Stuart smiled:

"All right, I'll be there."

"And a seat, Jim, where I can see you. I want a friend near the door
when I start, or I'll never make it--I'll drop on the way. You won't
fail?"

"No. You can depend on me."

As Bivens closed the door the young lawyer threw himself back in his
chair with a bitter laugh.

"What a farce our lives become sometimes. If we could all see behind
the scenes would there be a single illusion left--I wonder?"

His memory rested with bitterness on the fact that he had feared to
lift the curtain on Nan's character at one point in their final
struggle over this marriage. He had fought with desperation to win and
hold her heart, but he had fought fairly. There had always been a
way--he might have won by the sacrifice of character. He had not
offered to yield his ideal, accept her views, and change his life
purpose. The act would have been dishonourable only to his own sense of
right. He would have done exactly what Bivens asked. He had never
questioned this decision to the day of her wedding. But when the
fateful morning came he was stunned by the feeling of incredible
despair which crept into his heart. The day was chill and damp. Dull,
grayish, half-black clouds rolled over the city from the sea--clouds
that hung low and wet over the cold pavements without breaking into
rain.

He knew that Nan was as superstitious as the old black mammy of the
South who had nursed her. Aunt Sallie had come to New York for the
wedding of her "baby," and Stuart could hear her now crooning over the
sayings of wedding days:

"Marry in May you'll rue the day; marry in Lent you'll live to
repent----"

"Monday for wealth, Tuesday for health, Wednesday best of all; Thursday
for crosses, Friday for losses, and Saturday no luck at all." It was
Monday, and Nan must have known it when she fixed the day--but there
was another important saying he recalled now:

"Happy is the bride the sun shines on----"

Perhaps these lowering clouds and the coming storm might cause her to
hesitate and postpone the marriage. All morning he sat brooding by his
window, watching the swaying branches of the trees in the Square--and
though he knew at best that he was a fool--confidently expecting the
miracle of a message. As the hour of noon approached, despair slowly
settled over his heart.