detail I must of course be guided
by circumstances; but when I have put him down, either on his knees or
in some other posture, I shall slip away unobtrusively--"

"I should like to see you doing that. I don't think you could. You're
generally more obtrusive than any one else I've ever met."

"Leaving them together," said Meldon, "with Callaghan watching from
behind a tree, so as to be able to report to me exactly what happens.
In the meanwhile I shall stroll up the river and find the judge. If he
isn't actually into a fish at the moment, I shall bring him straight
down to the house and let him hear the result at once. If he has a
salmon hooked, I shall of course wait till it's landed, and then bring
him down. Afterwards I shall take Simpkins up to the rectory and make
arrangements about the licence. We ought, bar accidents, to have the
whole thing finished in the inside of a fortnight from now. After that
I must leave it in the hands of O'Donoghue. He'll have to be careful
how he treats Simpkins when he's called in. It won't do to make
mistakes and go curing him accidentally."

"I suppose," said the Major bitterly, "that you'll employ Sabina
Gallagher to make the wedding-cake. She might begin the poisoning."

"Certainly not," said Meldon. "Sabina couldn't make a wedding-cake,
and in any case Simpkins won't eat enough of his own wedding-cake to do
him any harm, whatever it's made of. If you were accustomed to
weddings, Major, you'd know that the whole cake is invariably eaten by
the postoffice officials--a most deserving class, whom nobody wants to
poison. Besides, in a case like this, it will be better to avoid all
publicity and show. It wouldn't do to have the newspapers getting hold
of the fact that Mrs. Lorimer is being married again so soon. There'd
be paragraphs, and the suspicions of Simpkins would be excited. On the
whole, I don't think we'll have a wedding cake, or bridesmaids, or
anything of that sort. But you can be best man if you like."

"I know you don't mean a word you're saying, J. J., and that you won't
really do anything."

"Wait and see."

"But if I thought you meant to cause Miss King the slightest uneasiness
or discomfort, I should simply turn you straight out of my house. I
wouldn't be a party for a single moment to any plan for insulting a
really nice woman like Miss King."

"Don't fret about that," said Meldon. "What I'm doing is exactly what
Miss King wants done. She