ss, as the other had meant him to be, Sir
John said hastily, "Of course I'll get it! I was only wondering whether
I hadn't better go alone."

"Lady Blake would be of great use in choosing it, and for the matter of
that, in trying it on. If you wait here a moment I'll go and fetch her.
She's got her hat on, I know."

So it happened that, in three or four minutes, just long enough for Sir
John to begin to feel impatient, Jervis's mother came out of the Trellis
House. She was smiling up into the great surgeon's face, and her husband
told himself that it was an extraordinary thing how this wedding had
turned their minds--all their minds--away from Jervis's coming ordeal.

"I wonder if Rose would like a broad or narrow wedding ring?" said Lady
Blake thoughtfully. "I'm afraid there won't be very much choice in a
place like Witanbury."

Sir Jacques looked after the couple for a few moments, then he turned
and went into the Trellis House, and so into the drawing-room.

"Bachelors," he said meditatively, "sometimes have a way of playing the
very mischief between married couples--eh, Mrs. Otway? So it's only fair
that now and again a bachelor should do something towards bringing a
couple together again."

She looked at him, surprised. What odd--and yes, rather improper
things--Sir Jacques sometimes said! But--but he was a _very_ kind man.
Mrs. Otway was a simple woman, though she would have felt a good deal
nettled had anyone told her so.

"I rather wonder," she said impulsively, "why _you_ never married. You
seem to approve of marriage, Sir Jacques?" She was looking into his face
with an eager, kindly look.

"If you look at me long enough," he said slowly, "I think you'll be
able to answer that question for yourself. The women I wanted--there
were three of them----" and then, as he saw that she again looked
slightly shocked, he added, "Not altogether, but consecutively, you
understand--well, not one of them would have me! The women who might
have put up with me--well, I didn't seem to want them! But I should like
to say one thing to you, Mrs. Otway. This particular affair in which you
and I are interested does seem to me, if you'll allow me to say so, 'a
marriage of true minds----'" He stopped abruptly, and to her great
surprise left the room without finishing his sentence.

* * * * *

Such trifling, and at the time such seemingly unimportant, little
happenings are often those which lon