, of course, the darlings
mean. Well, well, and to think I never guessed that all this time!"

"Oh," said Miss Clegson, "I did, Mrs. Margerison; I had a very shrewd
suspicion, I assure you. And this evening, when Mr. Peter asked me where
Miss Johnson was gone, and I told him into church, and he followed her
straight away, I said to myself, 'Well, _that_ looks like something we
all know about very well!' I didn't say it to anyone else; I wouldn't
breathe a word till all was settled; I knew you asked me in confidence,
Mr. Peter; but I thought the more. I was always one to see things; they
used to tell me I could see through a stone wall. Well, I'm sure I offer
my congratulations to both of you."

"And I too, with all my heart," said Miss Matthews, the lady who did not
attend ritualistic churches. "Do I understand that the happy arrangement
was made _in church_, Miss Johnson? I gather from Miss Clegson that Mr.
Peter followed you there."

"Oh, not inside, Miss Matthews," said Rhoda, blushing again, and looking
rather pretty. "In the porch, we were."

Miss Matthews sniffed faintly. Such goings-on might, she conveyed, be
expected in the porch of St. Austin's, with all that incense coming
through the door, and all that confessing going on inside.

"Well," said Mr. Bridger, "we ought to have some champagne to drink
success to the happy event. Short of that, let us fill the festive
bumpers with the flowing lemonade. Pass the jug down. Here's _to_ you,
Miss Rhoda; here's _to_ you, Mr. Peter Margerison. May you both be as
happy as you deserve. No one will want me to wish you anything better
than that, I'm sure."

"Here's luck, you dears," said Peggy, drinking. Engagements in general
delighted her, and Peter's in particular. And poor little Rhoda was
looking so bright and happy at last. Peggy wouldn't have taken it upon
herself to call it a remarkably suitable alliance had she been asked; but
then she hadn't been asked, and Peter was such a sweet-natured, loving,
lovable dear that he would get on with anyone, and Rhoda, though
sometimes a silly and sometimes fractious, was a dear little girl too.
The two facts that would have occurred to some sisters-in-law, that they
had extremely few pennies between them, and that Rhoda wasn't precisely
of Peter's gentle extraction, didn't bother Peggy at all.

They occurred, however, to Hilary. It occurred to him that Peter would
now require all his slender earnings for himself and wife,