ody else! She's set her heart on going to town the very moment
Dr. Panton allows her to get up. Then they're to be married without any
fuss at all in one of the old City churches."

"What a splendid idea!" cried Helen. "That's just how _I_ should like to
be married."

"I, too," said Sir Lyon, in his pleasant voice. "To me there's always
been something barbaric in the ordinary grand wedding."

But Blanche Farrow shook her head. "Perhaps because I'm so much older
than all of you," she said good-humouredly, "I think there's a great
deal to be said for an old-fashioned wedding: white dress (white satin
for choice), orange blossoms, St. George's, Hanover Square, and all! I
even like the crowd of people saying kind and unkind things in whispers
to one another. I don't think I should _feel_ myself married unless I
went through all that--"

And then, at last, James Tapster said something. "Marriage is all rot!"
he said, speaking, as was his unpleasant custom, with his mouth full.
"There are very few happy married couples about."

"That may be your experience," said Varick, speaking for the first time
since Blanche had told the great news. "I'm glad to say it isn't mine. I
think marriage far the happiest state--for either a man or a woman."

He spoke with a good deal of feeling, and both Panton and Helen Brabazon
felt very much touched. He had certainly made _his_ marriage a success.

Meanwhile, Blanche suspected that Dr. Panton had just had a letter
containing disturbing news. She saw him read it twice over. Then he put
it carefully in a note-book he took out of his pocket. "I shall have to
go to-morrow, a day earlier than I thought," he observed. "I've got an
appointment in town on Thursday morning."

Then Mr. Tapster announced that _he_ was going to-day, and though Varick
seemed genuinely sorry, everyone else was secretly glad.

There are days in life which pass by without being distinguished by any
outstanding happenings, and which yet remain in the mind as milestones
on the road of life.

Such a day, at any rate to Blanche Farrow, was the day which saw the
first disruption of Lionel Varick's Christmas house party. Though Mr.
Tapster was the only guest actually to leave Wyndfell Hall, all the
arrangements concerning the departures of the morrow had to be made.
Miss Burnaby, Helen Brabazon, and Sir Lyon Dilsford were to travel
together. Dr. Panton was going by a later train, as was also Bill
Donnington. Blanche her