in the shops?"

As she spoke her eyes dwelt on Annesley's plain toque and old-fashioned
shabby coat, as if to emphasize the word "shops." The girl flushed, and
Smith frowned at the Countess.

"No, thank you," he replied for Annesley. "There's nothing we need
trouble you about till the wedding to-morrow afternoon. You can put on
your gladdest rags then, and be one of our witnesses. I believe that's
the legal term, isn't it?"

"I do not know," said the Countess with a suppressed quiver in her voice,
and a flash in the eyes fixed studiously on the river. "I know nothing of
marriages in England. Who will be your other witness, if it's not
indiscreet to ask?"

"I haven't decided yet," returned Smith, laconically.

"Ah, of course, you have _plenty_ of friends to choose from; and so the
wedding will be to-morrow?"

"Yes. One fixes up these things in next to no time with a special
license. Luckily I'm a British subject. I never thought much about it
before, but it simplifies matters; and I'll have been living in this
parish a fortnight to-morrow. That's providential, for it seems that
legally it must be a fortnight. I've been up since it was light, learning
the ropes and beginning to work them. Even the hour's fixed--two-thirty."

(This was news for Annesley also, as there had been no time to begin
talking over the "hundred plans" Smith had mentioned in his letter.)

"You are prompt--and businesslike!" returned the Countess, and again the
girl blushed. She did not like to think of her knight of romance being
"businesslike" in his haste to make her his wife. But perhaps the
Countess didn't mean to suggest anything uncomplimentary. "At what church
will the 'ceremony take place' as the newspapers say?" she went on. "It
is to be a fashionable one?"

"No," replied, Smith, shortly. "Weddings in fashionable churches are
silly unless there's to be a crowd; and my wife and I are going to
collect our circle after we're married. I'll let you know in time where
we are going. As you'll be with the bride you can't lose yourself on the
way, so you needn't worry."

"I don't!" laughed the Countess. "I'm at your service, and I shall try to
be worthy of the occasion. But now I shall take myself off, or your
coffee will be cold. You have a busy day and it's late--even later than
our breakfasts on the _Monarchic_ three weeks ago. Already it seems three
months. _Au revoir_, Don. _Au revoir_, Miss Grayle."

She finished with a nod for A