ests, and as smile after smile encouraged him, and he
heard the steady stream of sincere good-wishes, Henry began to grow
curiously warm in the region of his heart, and curiously weak in the
knees. Anna moved closer to him.

"I told you so," she whispered. "I told you so. Everybody loves you."

"It isn't me," he whispered back, with ungrammatical fervour. "It's
you."

They stood together, then, at the rear of the house, to watch the
high-jinks going on in front. Standish had ousted the three-piece
orchestra, and taken over the piano; two other volunteers had flanked
him, and the revelry began with a favourite ditty to proclaim that all
reports to the contrary notwithstanding, Henry was style all the
while, all the while.

Then, suddenly, there were loud shouts for Henry and Anna, and they
were seized and dragged to the top of the centre aisle. Standish swung
into the Mendelssohn Wedding March, and through a haze of rose-leaf
confetti and paper streamers, the two Devereuxs were forced down to
the orchestra-pit. The house was on its feet to them, and Anna,
half-laughing, half-crying with happiness, was sorting confetti out of
her hair when Standish clambered up on the stage, and waved for
silence.

"Listen, everybody.... Old Hank Devereux and wife tried to save the
price of a caterer, last spring, and they got away with it. Alas,
Hank's a jealous bird, and he was afraid somebody'd kiss the bride.
Furthermore, Anna didn't want to get any wedding presents, because
they clutter up the house so. And when most of your friends live in
the same town, it's hard to get rid of the stuff you don't want. So
they buncoed us out of a party. Well, so far we've given 'em
Mendelssohn and confetti. Any lady or gent who now desires to kiss the
bride, please rise and come forward.... Hey, there! This isn't any
Sinn Fein sociable! Ceremony's postponed!... And finally, dearly
beloved brethren and sistren, we come to the subject of wedding
gifts." He turned to look down at the Devereuxs, and some of the
levity went out of his voice. "We thought we'd bring you a little
something for good-luck, old man. It's from all of us. Hope you like
it. If you don't, you can swap it for a few tons of coal.... There she
comes!"

It was a magnificent silver tea-service, borne down the aisle by the
two men who, next to Standish, were Henry's best friends.

Anna was utterly speechless, and Henry was coughing diligently. The
service was placed on the pi