"Why not hold the wedding in the rectory, then?" Mrs. Royal suggested.
"Perhaps they wouldn't mind under the circumstances."

"Wouldn't mind! Don't you know the Sanders well enough to realise what
they would do and say? Haven't they been planning for a 'church
wedding' for months? Here come more teams. What in the world shall we
do!" and the parson drew forth his handkerchief, and mopped his
perspiring brow.

"There must be only one person who knows where that key is," Mrs. Royal
thoughtfully remarked.

"And who is that?"

"Rodney. If you didn't remove it, he must have done so."

"Where is he?" and the clergyman looked around as if expecting to see
him appear.

"I do not know, Daniel. He always comes to see me when he returns from
school, but I have not seen him this afternoon. That scout book came
this morning, and he may be lost in that."

"But he is not in the house, Martha. I have boon all over the place
and have not seen him."

"Is the book there?" his wife asked. "I left it on the dining-room
table."