It stood for a week or two longer, open-eyed, as if
astonished at its own emptiness. Then it fell. Navvies came, and spilt
it back into the grey. With their muscles and their beery good temper,
they were not the worst of undertakers for a house which had always been
human, and had not mistaken culture for an end.

The furniture, with a few exceptions, went down into Hertfordshire, Mr.
Wilcox having most kindly offered Howards End as a warehouse. Mr. Bryce
had died abroad--an unsatisfactory affair--and as there seemed little
guarantee that the rent would be paid regularly, he cancelled the
agreement, and resumed possession himself. Until he relet the house, the
Schlegels were welcome to stack their furniture in the garage and lower
rooms. Margaret demurred, but Tibby accepted the offer gladly; it saved
him from coming to any decision about the future. The plate and the
more valuable pictures found a safer home in London, but the bulk of the
things went country-ways, and were entrusted to the guardianship of Miss
Avery.

Shortly before the move, our hero and heroine were married. They
have weathered the storm, and may reasonably expect peace. To have no
illusions and yet to love--what stronger surety can a woman find? She
had seen her husband's past as well as his heart. She knew her own heart
with a thoroughness that commonplace people believe impossible. The
heart of Mrs. Wilcox was alone hidden, and perhaps it is superstitious
to speculate on the feelings of the dead. They were warned
quietly--really quietly, for as the day approached she refused to go
through another Oniton. Her brother gave her away, her aunt, who was
out of health, presided over a few colourless refreshments. The Wilcoxes
were represented by Charles, who witnessed the marriage settlement, and
by Mr. Cahill. Paul did send a cablegram. In a few minutes, and without
the aid of music, the clergyman made them man and wife, and soon the
glass shade had fallen that cuts off married couples from the world.
She, a monogamist, regretted the cessation of some of life's innocent
odours; he, whose instincts were polygamous, felt morally braced by the
change and less liable to the temptations that had assailed him in the
past.

They spent their honeymoon near Innsbruck. Henry knew of a reliable
hotel there, and Margaret hoped for a meeting with her sister. In this
she was disappointed. As they came south, Helen retreated over the
Brenner, and wrote an unsatisf