eyes, and stand
together in Sightless Land; and Deryck will take care it is valid."

"Not in Sightless Land, my beloved," said Garth; "but in the Land where
they need no candle neither light of the sun. However, and wherever, I
take YOU as my wife, I shall be standing on the summit of God's heaven."

So they stood; and in their calmness the church hushed to silence. The
service proceeded; and the minister, who had not known how to keep them
from clasping hands when the rubric did not require it, found no
difficulty in inducing them to do so again.

So they took each other--these two, who were so deeply each other's
already--solemnly, reverently, tenderly, in the sight of God, they took
each other, according to God's holy ordinance; and the wedding ring,
type of that eternal love which has neither beginning nor ending,
passed from Garth's pocket, over the Holy Book, on to Jane's finger.

When it was over, she took his arm; and leaning upon it, so that he
could feel she leaned, guided him to the vestry.

Afterwards, in the brougham, for those few precious minutes, when
husband and wife find themselves alone for the first time, Garth turned
to Jane with an eager naturalness, which thrilled her heart as no
studied speech could have done. He did not say: "My wife." That unique
moment had been theirs, three years before.

"Dearest," he said, "how soon will they all go? How soon shall we be
quite alone? Oh, why couldn't they drive to the station from the
church?"

Jane looked at her watch. "Because we must lunch them, dear," she said.
"Think how good they have all been. And we could not start our married
life by being inhospitable. It is just one o'clock; and we ordered
luncheon at half-past. Their train leaves the station at half-past
four. In three hours, Garth, we shall be alone."

"Shall I be able to behave nicely for three hours?" exclaimed Garth,
boyishly.

"You must," said Jane, "or I shall fetch Nurse Rosemary."

"Oh hush!" he said. "All that is too precious, to-day, for chaff.
Jane"--he turned suddenly, and laid his hand on hers--"Jane! Do you
understand that you are now--actually--my wife?"

Jane took his hand, and held it against her heart, just where she so
often had pressed her own, when she feared he would hear it throbbing.

"My darling," she said, "I do not understand it. But I know--ah, thank
God!--I know it to be true."

CHAPTER XXXVIII

PERPETUAL LIGHT

Moonlight on the terrace--s