t!"

As she spoke those words, Lady Winwood read the telegram. It ran thus:

"Sir Joseph Graybrooke, Muswell Hill. To Miss Natalie Graybrooke;
Berkeley Square. Come back immediately. You are engaged to dine here
with Richard Turlington."

Lady Winwood folded up the telegram with a malicious smile. "Well
done, Sir Joseph!" thought her ladyship. "We might never have persuaded
Natalie--but for You!"

SIXTH SCENE.

The Church.

The time is morning; the date is early in the month of November. The
place is a church, in a poor and populous parish in the undiscovered
regions of London, eastward of the Tower, and hard by the river-side.

A marriage procession of five approaches the altar The bridegroom
is pale, and the bride is frightened. The bride's friend (a
resolute-looking little lady) encourages her in whispers. The two
respectable persons, apparently man and wife, who complete the
procession, seem to be not quite clear as to the position which they
occupy at the ceremony. The beadle, as he marshals them before the
altar, sees something under the surface in this wedding-party. Marriages
in the lower ranks of life are the only marriages celebrated here. Is
this a runaway match? The beadle anticipates something out of the common
in the shape of a fee.

The clergyman (the junior curate) appears from the vestry in his robes.
The clerk takes his place. The clergyman's eye rests with a sudden
interest and curiosity on the bride and bridegroom, and on the bride's
friend; notices the absence of elderly relatives; remarks, in the
two ladies especially, evidences of refinement and breeding entirely
unparalleled in his professional experience of brides and brides'
friends standing before the altar of that church; questions, silently
and quickly, the eye of the clerk, occupied also in observing the
strangers with interest "Jenkinson" (the clergyman's look asks), "is
this all right?" "Sir" (the clerk's look answers), "a marriage by banns;
all the formalities have been observed." The clergyman opens his book.
The formalities have been observed; his duty lies plainly before him.
Attention, Launcelot! Courage, Natalie! The service begins.

Launce casts a last furtive look round the church. Will Sir Joseph
Graybrooke start up and stop it from one of the empty pews? Is Richard
Turlington lurking in the organ-loft, and only waiting till the words of
the service appeal to him to prohibit the marriage, or "else hereafter
fore