Chatty, let us get
home, my darling. Come, come with me. Theo will take us home," the
mother said.

Then Chatty, turning round wondering, saw her bridegroom's face. She
looking at him earnestly for the moment, holding his arm tighter, and
then said with a strange, troubled, yet clear voice: "Dick--what does
it mean? Dick!"

"Come home, come home, my dearest," cried Mrs. Warrender, trying to
separate them.

"Come back to the vestry, Cavendish," cried Theo with threatening
tones; and then arose a loud murmur of other suggestions, a tumult most
unusual, horrifying, yet exciting to the spectators who closed around.
The clergyman came out still in his surplice, hurrying towards the spot
"Whatever the interruption is," he said, "don't stay there, for Heaven's
sake. Come back if you will, or go home, but don't let us have a
disturbance in the church."

"Chatty, go with my mother. For God's sake, Frances, get them all away."

"I will not leave Dick," said Chatty in her soft voice, "until I know
what it is." She who was so yielding and so simple, she turned round
with her own impulse the unhappy young man whose arm she held, and who
seemed for the moment incapable of any action of his own, and led him
back towards the place from which they had come. The horror had not
penetrated sufficiently into Chatty's mind to do more than pale a
little the soft colour in her face. She had grown very serious, looking
straight before her, taking no notice of anything. They all followed
like so many sheep in her train, the ladies crowding together, Dick's
sister at his other hand, Mrs. Warrender close behind, Lizzie carried
along with them, now crying bitterly and wringing her hands, utterly
cowed by finding herself in the midst of this perfumed and rustling
crowd, amid which her flushed and tear-stained face and humble dress
showed to such strange disadvantage. Unnoticed by the rest, Geoff, who
had wriggled out of the mass, pursued down the farther aisle a hurrying
flying figure and stopped her, holding her fast.

In the vestry Chatty began to fail a little. She relinquished Dick's
arm, and stood trembling, supporting herself by the table. "I want him,"
she said, faltering a little, "mamma, to tell me--what it means. There
is something--to find out. Dick," with a tremulous smile, "you have
concealed something. It is not that I don't trust you,--but tell me"--Then,
still smiling, she murmured, "Lizzie--and that--that poor--girl."

Dick