her wedding on a grand scale,
except that Tony, sitting by my side, drew a long breath when the bishop
who was marrying Diana to Sidney Vandyke finished the conventional pause
following "or else forever after hold his peace." I flashed another
glance at Tony but he was looking more like an imperturbable Billiken
than he had ever looked.

And so Di was married, and people whispered what a beautiful bride, and
how good-looking the American bridegroom was, while she and Sidney were
in the vestry signing their names in the book. Then, down the aisle they
came, Di radiant, Major Vandyke flushed and brilliant eyed. "He looks as
if he had just fought a successful engagement," I heard an American man
in the pew behind say to his wife. Well, that was exactly what he had
done. But whether according to the rules of war or not was another
question. We let the crowd pour out of the church before us, and
followed at leisure, I feeling more depressed than I should at a
funeral. Automobiles and carriages were dashing up to the pavement to
take people away, and dashing off again after an instant's pause, while
throngs of the uninvited and curious pressed close on either side of the
red carpet. Rain was falling, but the lookers-on appeared to care
little. The people seemed more excited than usual at a wedding, we
thought, especially after the passing of the bride; and Tony and I
looked at each other questioningly with raised eyebrows as we caught a
word here and there.

"Might 'ave been a tragedy!" "Pretty close call, that was." "If it
hadn't been for that feller they'd both have been dead corpses now!"
remarked the uninvited.

"What can have happened?" we asked each other, and I made Tony speak to
the policeman who had shut us into our car.

"Bride's carriage, sir; but it was soon all right in the end," was the
only answer we got, as the signal was given for our motor to move off
and the next to come up.

"The bride's carriage!" Then the new automobile hadn't come, and there
had been an accident at the church door.

CHAPTER XV

We dashed home to get news of Diana, and it was a relief to find
everything decorous and apparently serene at the house. We were informed
by a band of footmen, hired with powder and pomatum inclusive, for the
occasion, that the bride had arrived safely. There was no stare of
consternation or half-hidden horror on any face. But in the
flower-decked drawing-room, with its effective marble pillars (