eful twoad were he.
And he said as married and 'appy he'd be;
But all folks jeered and laughed he-he!"

Mehetabel's cheeks were pale, and her brows were contracted and
her lips set as she went to Thursley Church on the wedding-day,
accompanied by Mrs. Verstage and some village friends.

Gladly would she have elected to have her marriage performed as
quietly as possible, and at an hour and on a day to which none
were privy save those most immediately concerned. But this
did not suit the pride of the hostess, who was resolved on making
a demonstration, of getting to herself the credit of having acted
a generous and even lavish part towards the adopted child.

Mehetabel held up her head, not with pride, but with resolution
not to give way. Her brain was stunned. Thought would no more
flow in it than veins of water through a frozen soil. All the
shapes of human beings that passed and circled around her were
as phantasms. In church she hardly gathered her senses to know
when and what to respond.

She could scarcely see the register through the mist that had
formed over her eyes when she was required to sign her Christian
name, or collect her thoughts to understand the perplexity of the
parson, as to how to enter her, when she was without a surname.

When congratulated with effusion by Mrs. Verstage, with courtesy
by the Vicar, and boisterously by the boys and girls who were
present, she tried to force a smile, but ineffectually, as her
features were set inflexibly.

The bridegroom kissed her cheek. She drew back as if she had been
stung, as a sensitive plant shrinks from the hand that grasps it.

The previous day had been one of rain, so also had been the night,
with a patter of raindrops on the roof above Mehetabel's attic
chamber, and a flow of tears beneath.

During the morning, on the way to church, though there had been
no rain, yet the clouds had hung low, and were threatening.

They separated and were brushed aside as the wedding party issued
from the porch, and then a flood of scorching sunlight fell over
the bride and bridegroom. For the first time Mehetabel raised her
head and looked up. The impulse was unconscious--it was to let
light shine into her eyes and down into the dark, despairing
chambers of her soul filled only with tears.

The villagers in the churchyard murmured admiration; as she issued
from the gates they cheered.

Bideabout was elate; he was proud to know that the handsomest gir