The marriage was to take place at two, and for an hour before people had streamed into the Cathedral. The rows of free seats in nave3 and transepts were full of the boys and girls of Jeannie’s classes, and the combined length of feather in the girls’ hats would have stretched from Bolton Street to[329] the altar. Many of them knew exactly how to behave at a marriage, and long before anything happened at all were crying profusely4 into their pocket-handkerchiefs. This very proper proceeding5 was interrupted with interested glances toward the west door, and when, a few minutes before two, it was rumoured6 that the bridegroom had arrived, the handkerchiefs were discreetly7 put away, for if you weep you are apt to miss points of interest.
The choir8 was kept for the invited guests, who had come in enormous numbers. A whole clan9 of Aveshams and Fortescues were there, and Colonel Raymond felt it was quite a family gathering10, and was conscientiously11 able to congratulate himself on their appearance. The Collingwood party, he considered, lacked that fine air of distinction which marked his race, and the Colonel looked immensely interesting, and quite distinctly caught the eye of a countess no less, who instantly looked away.
Among the women present there was only one dark spot of colour. In a seat near the screen was Miss Clara. She was in black.[330]
Weddings tend to be like each other. There are the same pieces on the organ, and for the most part the same hymns12. There is the same anxiety to see how the bride behaves, and the same disappointment to find that she behaves like most other brides.
Jeannie was perhaps a little different; she looked quite radiantly happy, and not self-conscious at all; she said her own word very audibly, and on the way down from the altar she caught sight of Miss Clara, stopped the whole procession to kiss her in the face of the assembled congregation, and all the Avesham contingent13 said to their neighbours, “Who is that woman in black?”
Afterward14 there was a reunion at Bolton Street, and Collingwoods mixed in a manner which did not suggest chemical affinity15 with Aveshams, and each found the other just a shade trying. The bridegroom’s mother, for instance, was, to say the least of it, puzzled with Lady Tamar, the bride’s aunt, who smoked a cigarette with the whole of the close looking on, and really did not seem to be aware how unusually she was behaving. It was idle to explain, and Lady Tamar, on her[331] side, at the end of the interview, said to herself, “Poor Jeannie!” However, as neither knew (or cared) what the other thought of her, there was no harm done. It was lucky indeed that Mrs. Collingwood was not aware what the world in general said about Lady Tamar; lucky also that Lady Tamar did not know the innermost truth about Mrs. Collingwood! She believed that the whole world was made to amuse her, and, if she had known, Mrs. Collingwood would have amused her so much that her inextinguishable laughter might have caused offence. Colonel Raymond alone, perhaps, was of all present in the seventh heaven of bliss16; he did not talk to anybody, but he listened with both ears, and stocked himself with distinguished17 names. He had an excellent memory and the Peerage. Thus his old cronies were likely to hear more of collateral18 Aveshams.
Both bride and bridegroom effaced19 themselves from the party until their appearance was necessary. They were to leave Wroxton by a train soon after four, and the interval20 between their mingling21 with the party and the last possible moment of catching22 their[332] train was short. Jack23 held that wedding parties were a barbarity, Jeannie that it was better not to be a principal actor; and, as a matter of fact, they sat quietly in the nursery and amused the baby till Arthur warned them it was time to go to their train. For both there was rice and slippers24, for each there was the other.
The family who had taken Merton were in London, and were delighted that the two should spend their honeymoon25 there. Merton was only a couple of stations from Wroxton, and they arrived soon after five. All about her were the dear familiarities of childhood, by her the crown of her womanhood. Nowhere else, she thought, could Jack have known her as well as here.
From tea till dinner-time they wandered about the place; like two children, the one introducing the other to her home. This was the hedge where the long-tailed tit built, and this the copse where wild lilies-of-the-valley flowered in May. There was a reminiscence dear to her, and infinitely26 dear to him, about every yard of the place. The old boat-house with a leaky punt had given her many a[333] Columbus voyage to the island on the lake, and the clusters of water-lilies to surprised eyes had been a Sargasso Sea. The punt was gone, but a newer boat was there, and they rowed about for nearly an hour, and watched the quick fishes in the water, and gathered the tall rushes and the golden-hearted lilies, and together were rung to dressing27 time, as Jeannie in the old days had been rung to bed. And as before they delayed to obey.
Dinner was over, and they sat on the south of the terrace-fronted house; a full moon moved like a queen bee among the swarming28 stars, and the world was refashioned out of soft darkness and ivory and pearl. Pearl-coloured was Jeannie’s dress, and she the pearl of pearls.
“How strange one’s life goes in acts,” she said. “The act at Wroxton is over now, but what a pleasant one it was. Oh, Jack, I hope this act will be a long one. Do you remember the plank29 bridge by the mill, and Toby shaking himself?”
“Do I remember?” echoed Jack. “Do I remember?”
“Only think, it is not a year ago,” she[334] said. “And until then we had lived without each other. What a pity we did not advertise for each other before. It has been such a waste of time. Ah, there is the nightingale; there is always one in the elms at the end of the terrace. I remember how it sang all that night on which my father died.”
“It does not hurt you to think of that?” said Jack, gently.
“No, why should it? Life, love, death, the three great gifts of God. ‘What further can be sought for or declared?’” she quoted.
For a long time they sat in silence. The moon, still not yet in zenith, shone with a very clear light across the lake, and made a pathway of silver to the dim farther shore. To the right the nightingale trilled and bubbled, a few lights gleamed from the great house behind. A spell seemed cast over the world, and over the two sitting there a spell was cast.
Suddenly Jeannie turned and laid her arm round his neck.
“You are happy?” she asked. “You have made no mistake?[335]”
But in her heart there was no question, but utter conviction.
“God knows I am happy!” he said.
“And you, Jack, you?” she asked. “Do you know it?”
“You know that I know it,” he replied. “Is that not enough?”
And they rose and walked softly through the softness of the night back to the house.
THE END
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1
vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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chattering
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| n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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nave
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| n.教堂的中部；本堂 | |
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profusely
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| ad.abundantly | |
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proceeding
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| n.行动，进行，(pl.)会议录，学报 | |
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6
rumoured
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| adj.谣传的；传说的；风 | |
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discreetly
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| ad.(言行)审慎地，慎重地 | |
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choir
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| n.唱诗班，唱诗班的席位，合唱团，舞蹈团；v.合唱 | |
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clan
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| n.氏族，部落，宗族，家族，宗派 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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conscientiously
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| adv.凭良心地；认真地，负责尽职地；老老实实 | |
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12
hymns
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| n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌( hymn的名词复数 ) | |
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13
contingent
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| adj.视条件而定的；n.一组，代表团，分遣队 | |
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14
afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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affinity
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| n.亲和力，密切关系 | |
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16
bliss
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| n.狂喜，福佑，天赐的福 | |
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17
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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collateral
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| adj.平行的；旁系的；n.担保品 | |
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effaced
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| v.擦掉( efface的过去式和过去分词 )；抹去；超越；使黯然失色 | |
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interval
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| n.间隔，间距；幕间休息，中场休息 | |
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21
mingling
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| adj.混合的 | |
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catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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24
slippers
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| n. 拖鞋 | |
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25
honeymoon
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| n.蜜月（假期）；vi.度蜜月 | |
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infinitely
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| adv.无限地，无穷地 | |
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27
dressing
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| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
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28
swarming
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| 密集( swarm的现在分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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29
plank
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| n.板条，木板，政策要点，政纲条目 | |
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