"He seemed to see everything, but he only looked at Charles," she
answered. For a moment they all stood in the sunshine looking
towards the Langenmarkt where the tower of the Rathhaus rose above
the high roofs. The dust raised by the horses' feet and the
carriage wheels slowly settled on their bridal clothes.

It was Desiree who at length made a movement to continue their way
towards her father's house.

"Well," she said with a slight laugh, "he was not bidden to my
wedding, but he has come all the same."

Others laughed as they followed her. For a bride at the church-
door, or a judge on the bench, or a criminal on the scaffold-steps,
need make but a very small joke to cause merriment. Laughter is
often nothing but the froth of tears.

There were faces suddenly bleached in the little group of wedding-
guests, and none were whiter than the handsome features of Mathilde
Sebastian, Desiree's elder sister, who looked angry, had frowned at
the children, and seemed to find this simple wedding too bourgeois
for her taste. She carried her head with an air that told the world
not to expect that she should ever be content to marry in such a
humble style, and walk from the church in satin slippers like any
daughter of a burgher.

This, at all events, was what old Koch the locksmith must have read
in her beautiful, discontented face.

"Ah! ah!" he muttered to the bolts as he shot them. "But it is not