Mrs. Brian, when a great
commotion was noticed under the porch.

People came out, and said,--

"It is all over. The wedding-guests are in the vestry now to sign their
names."

The conversation stopped at once. The old beau alone exclaimed,--

"Gentlemen, if we wish to present our respects to the newly-married
couple, we must make haste."

And with these words he hurried into the church, followed by all the
others, and soon reached the vestry, which was too small to hold all
the guests invited by Count Ville-Handry. The parish register had been
placed upon a small table; and every one approached, as his turn came,
taking off his gloves before seizing the pen. Fronting the door, and
leaning against one of the cupboards in which the holy vessels are kept,
stood Miss Brandon, now Countess Ville-Handry, having at her side grim
Mrs. Brian, and tall, stiff M. Elgin.

Her admirers had exaggerated nothing. In her white bridal costume she
looked amazingly beautiful; and her whole person exhaled a perfume of
innocence and ingenuous purity.

She was surrounded by eight or ten young persons, who overwhelmed
her with congratulations and compliments. She replied with a slightly
tremulous voice, and casting down her eyes with the long, silky
eyelashes. Count Ville-Handry stood in the centre of the room, swelling
with almost comic happiness; and at every moment, in replying to his
friends, used the words, "My wife," like a sweet morsel which he rolled
on his tongue.

Still a careful observer might have noticed underneath his victorious
airs a trace of almost painful restraint. From time to time his
face darkened as one of those unlucky, awkward people, who turn up
everywhere, asked him,--

"I hope Miss Henrietta is not complaining much? How very sorry she must
be to be detained at home!"

It is true, that, among these unlucky ones, there were not a few
malicious ones. Nobody was ignorant that something unpleasant had
happened in the count's family. They had suspected something from the
beginning of the ceremony.

For the count had hardly knelt down by Miss Brandon's side, on a velvet
cushion, when a servant wearing his livery had come up, and whispered
a few words in his ear. The guests who were nearest had seen him turn
pale, and utter an expression of furious rage.

What had the servant told him?

It became soon known, thanks to the Countess Bois, who went about
telling everybody with inexhaustible volubility, that