s abstraction in which Elinor had been going
through the morning hours. Mariamne's jarring voice seemed louder than
the bells. Was this the first voice sent out to greet her by the new
life which was about to begin? She glanced at her mother, and then
at old Uncle Tatham, who sat immovable, prevented by decorum from
apostrophising the coachman who was not his own, but fuming inwardly at
the interruption. Mrs. Dennistoun did not move at all, but her daughter
knew very well what was meant by that look straight before her, in which
her mother seemed to ignore all obstacles in the way.

"I got here very well," Lady Mariamne went on; "we started in the middle
of the night, of course, before the lamps were out. Wasn't it good of
Algy to get himself out of bed at such an unearthly hour! But he snapped
at Puggy as we came down, which was a sign he felt it. Why aren't you
with the poor victim at the altar, you boys?"

"Phil will be in blue funk," said Harry; "go in and stand by your man,
Dick: the Jew has enough with two fellows to see her into her place."

The bride's carriage by this time pushed forward, making Lady Mariamne
start in confusion. "Oh! look here; they have splashed my pretty
toilette, and upset my nerves," she cried, springing back into her
supporter's arms.

That gentleman regarded the stain of the damp gravel on the lady's skirt
through his eye-glass with deep but helpless anxiety. "It's a pity for
the pretty frock!" he said with much seriousness. And the group gathered
round and gazed in dismay, as if they expected it to disappear of
itself--until Mrs. Hudson bustled up. "It will rub off; it will not make
any mark. If one of you gentlemen will lend me a handkerchief," she
said. And Algy and Harry and Dick Bolsover, not to speak of Lady
Mariamne herself, watched with great gravity while the gravel was swept
off. "I make no doubt," said the Rector's wife, "that I have the
pleasure of speaking to Lady Mariamne: and I don't doubt that black is
the fashion and your dress is beautiful: but if you would just throw on
a white shawl for the sake of the wedding--it's so unlucky to come in
black----"

"A white shawl!" said Lady Mariamne in dismay.

"The Jew in a white shawl!" echoed the others with a burst of laughter
which rang into the church itself and made Phil before the altar, alone
and very anxious, ask himself what was up.

"It's China crape, I assure you, and very nice," Mrs. Hudson said.

Lady Mariamne