w you wouldn't feel married if it wasn't, but it
must be in a church where nobody we're likely to meet ever goes; and the
parson must be one we won't stand a chance of knocking up against later.

"Managed the way I shall manage it, there'll be no difficulty. Mr. and
Mrs. Blank will walk out of the vestry after they've signed their names,
and--_lose themselves_. No reason why they should ever be associated with
Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Smith. Do you much mind all these complications?"

"Not if they're necessary to save you from danger," the girl answered.

"By Jove, you're a trump! But I haven't come to the _big_ favour yet. Now
for it! When I write my real name in the register, I don't want you to
look. Is that the one thing too much?"

Annesley tried not to flinch under his eyes. Yet--he had put her to a
severe test. Last night, when he said that it would be better for her not
to know his name, she had quietly agreed.

But there was the widest difference between then and now. At that time
they had been strangers flung together by a wave of fate which, it
seemed, might tear them apart at any instant. In a few hours all was
changed. They belonged to each other. This man's name would be her name,
yet he wished her to be ignorant of it!

If the girl had not thought of him truly as her knight, if she had not
been determined to trust him, the "big favour" would indeed have been too
big.

Despite her trust, and the romantic, new-born love in her heart, she was
unable to answer for a moment. Her breath was snatched away; but as she
struggled to regain it and to speak, a bleak picture of the future
without him rose before her eyes. She couldn't give him up, and go on
living, after the glimpse he had shown her of what life might be!

"No, it's not too much," she said, slowly. "It's only part of the trust
I've promised to--my knight."

He gave a sigh of relief. "Thank you--and my lucky star for the prize you
are!" he exclaimed. Some men would have offered their thanks to God, or
to "Heaven." Annesley noticed that he praised his "star."

This was one of many disquieting things, large and small; for she had
been brought up to be a religious girl, and was mentally on her knees
before God in gratitude for the happiness which illuminated her gray
life. She could not bear to think that God was nothing to the man who had
become everything to her. She wanted to shut her eyes to all that was
strange in him; but it was as difficult as