e 3, Chapter XIX.

A QUIET WEDDING.

There was just time to snatch a hasty breakfast the next morning before
starting for the station, and after a short journey they mounted into
the dog-cart which Humphrey had sent to meet them. By comparing times,
Pratt, who had taken all the management upon himself, found that he
could execute a little plan he had been hatching; and when they neared
Penreife, after a chat with the groom about the preparations, he
proposed to Richard that they should alight, send the vehicle on, and
take the short cut by the lanes.

"If you like," said Richard, quietly; and the sadness that had seemed to
hang over him more and more as they neared their journey's end now half
unmanned him.

"I thought you'd like better to walk up to the old place alone," said
Frank, "instead of having a third person with us."

"Thank you, Frank, thank you," said Richard, in a voice that was husky
with emotion. "It was a mistake to come."

"No, no, a kindness to Humphrey and me."

"I--I--thought I could stand it better, and not behave like such a weak
fool," said Richard. "There, it's over now. Let's get through our
task, so that I may go back."

"You must wait for me, you know, Dick," said Frank, cheerily. "There,
cheer up, old man, it isn't for ever and a day. Try and be hopeful, and
put on a bright face before the wedding folks. It's all going to be as
quiet as possible--a couple of carriages to the church and back. Your
old people will be there. Say a kind word to them--there, you know how
to do it."

"I'll try and act like a man, Frank, hard as it will be. But you've set
me a bitter task."

"Then you shall have some sweet to take with it," said Pratt to himself.
Then aloud, "Ah, how nice this old lane looks. I never saw the ferns
brighter or richer. How the sun shines through the trees. What a
lovely morning, Dick! I say," he gabbled on in a hasty way, "look at
that tiny waterfall. What a change, Dick, from Fountain Court, Temple."

"Why did you come this way?" groaned Richard, as he strove hard to fight
down the emotion caused by the recollections that pervaded his memory.

That lane was hallowed to him: but a quarter of a mile farther was the
old woman's cottage where he had encountered the sisters; there was the
place where he had walked one evening with Tiny; there--oh, there was a
happy memory clinging to every tree and mossy block of granite; and but
for the strong effort he made