id her
disappointment.

"Do come; please do," she urged him.

They all left the church together. Christine walked between the two
men down the long aisle; she did not feel a bit as if she had been
married; she wondered if soon she was going to wake up and find that
she had dreamt it all.

There was a taxi waiting at the church door. She got in, and both men
followed. Jimmy sat beside her, but he talked to Sangster all the way.
He was terribly nervous; he kept twisting and torturing the new pair of
grey gloves which he had never put on; they were all out of shape and
creased long before taxi stopped again at the quiet restaurant where
they were to lunch.

Christine looked at Jimmy.

"What can I do with my flowers? I--everybody will know if I take them
in with me." She blushed as she spoke. Jimmy's own face caught the
reflection from hers.

"Oh, leave 'em in the taxi," he said awkwardly. "I'll tell the chap to
come back for us in an hour."

He surreptitiously stuffed the new gloves into a coat pocket; he tried
to look as if there were nothing very unusual about any of them as he
led the way in.

Christine hardly ate anything; she was shy and unhappy. The kind
efforts which Sangster made to make her feel at her ease added to her
embarrassment. She missed her mother more and more as the moments fled
away; she was on the verge of a breakdown when at last the interminable
meal was ended.

She had hardly touched the champagne with which Jimmy had insisted on
filling her glass; there were two empty bottles on the table, and she
wondered mechanically who had drunk it all.

Sangster bade her "good-bye" as they left the restaurant; he held her
hand for a moment, and looked into her eyes.

"I hope you will be very happy; I am sure you will."

Christine tried to thank him; she wished he were not going to leave
them; she had not wanted him to come with them in the first place, but
now she was conscious only of a desire to keep him there. Her heart
pounded in her throat as he turned away; she looked apprehensively at
Jimmy--her husband now.

He was looking very smart, she thought with a little thrill of pride;
she was sure he was quite the best-looking man she had ever seen. He
was talking to Sangster, but she could not hear what either of them was
saying.

"Be good to her, Jimmy . . . she's such a child."

That was what Sangster was saying; and Jimmy--well, Jimmy flushed
uncomfortably as he answered w