, due to the crowd and the heat. The little
flutter of excitement which it caused soon passed away, and the ceremony
began and went on without any of the bridal party even knowing what had
happened.

She was carried to the gallery stairs, and there Dora sat her down,
supporting her with her arm, while one sympathetic young lady held a
bottle of salts to her nostrils, and an older lady emptied a
scent-bottle on to her handkerchief and held it to her forehead.

In a very few minutes she came round. She looked about her, and,
recognising Dora, said:

"Oh, dear, what's happened? Where am I? Yes, I remember--at a
wedding--and he----"

Then she checked herself, and Dora said:

"Do you think you're well enough to come down and get into a cab, and
then we'll get home? It was the heat and the crush that did it, I
suppose."

"Yes, I think I can," said Carol. "I'm all right now. Thank you very
much for being so kind," she went on to the other two with a faint smile
of gratitude.

"Oh, don't mention it," they said almost together, and then the younger
one put her hand under her arm and helped her up. "Let me help you
down," she said. "I daresay you'll be all right when you get into the
open air."

Carol looked round at her and saw that, without being exactly pretty,
she had a very sweet and sympathetic expression, and big, soft brown
eyes which looked out very kindly under dark level brows. It was a face
which women perhaps admire more than men; but her voice was one which
would have gone just as quickly to a man's heart as to a woman's. At any
rate, it went straight to Carol's, and when they had got into the cab
and she leant back against the cushions she said to Dora:

"I wonder who that girl was? Did you notice what a sweet face and what a
lovely voice she had? I'm not very loving towards my own sex, but as
soon as I got round I felt that I wanted to hug her--and I suppose if
she knew the sort of person I am she wouldn't have touched me. What a
difference clothes make, don't they? Now, if I'd been dressed as some of
the girls are----"

"I think you're quite wrong there, Carol," said Dora, interrupting her.
"I don't believe she's that sort at all, she was much too nice, I'm
certain. She had the face of a really good woman, and you know good
women don't think that of us. It's only the goody-goody ones who do
that, and there's a lot of difference between good and goody-goody."

"Well, yes," said Miss Carol, "I daresa