to the vestry. They went. Colonel Mansfield with a species of jocose
pomposity specially assumed for the occasion, his wife, upright,
thin-lipped, forbidding, instinct with wordless disapproval.

The bride,--the veil thrown back from her beautiful face,--stood
laughing with her husband. There was no fixity in the soft flush of
those delicately rounded cheeks. Even Lady Harriet realized that, though
she had never seen so much colour in the girl's face before. She
advanced stiffly, and Ralph Dacre with smiling grace took his wife's arm
and drew her forward.

"This is good of you, Lady Harriet," he declared. "I was hoping for your
support. Allow me to introduce--my wife!"

His words had a pride of possession that rang clarion-like in every
syllable, and in response Lady Harriet was moved to offer a cold cheek
in salutation to the bride. Stella bent instantly and kissed it with a
quick graciousness that would have melted any one less austere, but in
Lady Harriet's opinion the act was marred by its very impulsiveness. She
did not like impulsive people. So, with chill repression, she accepted
the only overture from Stella that she was ever to receive.

But if she were proof against the girl's ready charm, with her husband
it was quite otherwise. Stella broke through his pomposity without
effort, giving him both her hands with a simplicity that went straight
to his heart. He held them in a tight, paternal grasp.

"God bless you, my dear!" he said. "I wish you both every happiness from
the bottom of my soul."