ish like a spectre out of her life, and had waited vainly for his coming, only to receive instead

w she had considered herself as half married to him. Other men attracted by her physical beauty and her mental charm had approached her, as they had a perfect right to do, in open and honest rivalry of Vane,

ure. She had not troubled herself about the deadly scientific aspect of the matter. She knew perfectly well that men got drunk sometimes and still made excellent husbands, and, more

ave received him as her lover and, after a little friendly lecture which would, of course, have

regret at the turn which matters had taken, but saying that, after repeated conversations with Vane, he had been forced to the conclusio

d for the sake of another woman it would have been quite a different matter. Then there would have been something tangible to hate bitterly for a season, and then to get revenged on by making a much more brilliant marriage, as she could easily have done. But it was infinitely worse, and more humiliating to be thrown over like this by the m

o the practical majority, and so when the breaking off of the engagement became an actual social fact, and Reginald Garthorne came just at the psychological moment to tell her that never since he had earned that boyish licking on the steamer by kissing her, had he been able to look with love into the eyes of any other woman, she had told him with perfect f

een friends with Vane, but in his soul he had hated him consistently as boy and man ever since that scene behind the wheelhouse of the

itle and a fine old country house in the Midlands, with a rent-roll and mining royalties worth over thirty thousand a year. He would be able to make her life a continuous dream of pleasure, amidst which she would very s

r had been very badly treated. From every social point of view this was a match which left nothing to be desired, and so they said "yes

, darling, I've

have it, two ceremonies were being performed at the same hour, one in St.

ltar rails in front of the Communion Table, and on the topmost step before the rails

his exhortation the Archdeacon, who was preacher

t delay, was obedient unto the call of Thy Son Jesus Christ and followed Him, so we, forsaking all worldly a

altar rails was Mark Ernshaw,

brilliant worldly prospects to enter the Church. He was, as has already been said, a deeply religious man himself, but still, he was a man of the world, a man who had made his own way through the world, a

any other men, of taking Orders to secure a profession and a position. He was entering the Church as the men of more earnest and more faithful ages had done; be

for Vane; but for Vane's sake he had made it willingly and cheerfully, and he was able now to look forward with perfect contentment to the tri

the Litany and Suffrages began, and every note and word of the solemn intonation, ringing through the sil

eaven: have mercy upon

of the world: have mercy

from the Father and the Son: hav

ty, three Persons and one God: hav

take thou vengeance on our sins: spare us, good Lord, spare thy people whom th

m the crafts and assaults of the devil: fr

vain-glory and hypocrisy: from envy, hat

dly sin: and from all the deceits of

ord del

r the offences of our forefathers: ne

other Kingdom which, though worldwide, yet owns but a single Lord-seemed to fall with greater weight into Vane's soul than any others of the service. As he heard them he raised his bent head, threw it back and, with wide open eyes, looked up over the B

never known, and of that girl who was almost his sister, long ago lost in the great wilderness of London. They were not likenesses, o

, the Lord be

end of his days. Many a man and woman has rashly wished that it were possible to look into the future. Such a thought had more than once crossed Vane Maxwell's mind, but could he, i

om Gloucester Cathedral, to

ondon had not seen a lovelier bride or a handsomer bridegroom than Enid Raleigh and Reginald Garthorne. The church was thronged

aces just as the bridal procession was moving up the central aisle. There was the bride with her attendant bridesmaids, six little maidens dressed in pure white, the bridegroom with his pages, six counterparts dressed in

ront of the gallery, and stared with straining eyes down at the slowly moving p

at; you migh

her, caught her by the arm with one hand and pointing downwards wi

ll the ruin! That's my father-and my mother was Vane's mother, and that's his son, going

dding into a tragedy; but the rush of thoughts which came surging into her brain was too much for her. The swift revelation of an almost unbel

atron just behind her, to a companion at her side, "a petite maitresse, no