HUSBAND AND WIFE

". . . to love, cherish, and to obey till death us do part."

Christine raised her soft brown eyes shyly and looked at Jimmy
Challoner.

A ray of sunlight, piercing the stained glass window above the altar,
fell on her face and slim figure; her voice was quite clear and steady,
though a little sad perhaps, as she slowly repeated the words after the
rather bored-looking clergyman.

Jimmy had insisted on being married in a parish where neither of them
was known; he had got a special licence, and there was nobody in the
church but the verger and Sangster, and a deaf uncle of Christine's,
who thought the whole affair a great bother, and who had looked up a
train to catch back home the very moment that Christine should have
safely passed out of his keeping into her husband's.

He bade them "good-bye" in the vestry; he kissed Christine rather
awkwardly, and said that he hoped she would be happy; his voice seemed
to imply a doubt. He shook hands with Jimmy and called him a lucky
dog; he spoke like a man who hardly realises what he is saying; he
shook hands with Sangster and hurried away.

They heard him creaking down the aisle of the church, and the following
slam of the heavy door behind him; there was a little awkward silence.

The clergyman was blotting Christine's new name in the register; he
looked up at her with short-sighted eyes, a quill pen held between his