"No, thank you," he replied for Annesley. "There's nothing we need
trouble you about till the wedding to-morrow afternoon. You can put on
your gladdest rags then, and be one of our witnesses. I believe that's
the legal term, isn't it?"

"I do not know," said the Countess with a suppressed quiver in her voice,
and a flash in the eyes fixed studiously on the river. "I know nothing of
marriages in England. Who will be your other witness, if it's not
indiscreet to ask?"

"I haven't decided yet," returned Smith, laconically.

"Ah, of course, you have _plenty_ of friends to choose from; and so the
wedding will be to-morrow?"

"Yes. One fixes up these things in next to no time with a special
license. Luckily I'm a British subject. I never thought much about it
before, but it simplifies matters; and I'll have been living in this
parish a fortnight to-morrow. That's providential, for it seems that
legally it must be a fortnight. I've been up since it was light, learning
the ropes and beginning to work them. Even the hour's fixed--two-thirty."

(This was news for Annesley also, as there had been no time to begin
talking over the "hundred plans" Smith had mentioned in his letter.)

"You are prompt--and businesslike!" returned the Countess, and again the
girl blushed. She did not like to think of her knight of romance being
"businesslike" in his haste to make her his wife. But perhaps the
Countess didn't mean to suggest anything uncomplimentary. "At what church
will the 'ceremony take place' as the newspapers say?" she went on. "It