But it was not Monona.  It was Lulu and Cornish.

“Well!” said Dwight, tone curving downward.

“Well!” said Ina, in replica.

“Lulie!” said Mrs. Bett, and left her dinner, and went to her daughter and put her hands upon her.

“We wanted to tell you first,” Cornish said.  “We’ve just got married.”

“For ever more!” said Ina.

“What’s this?” Dwight sprang to his feet.  “You’re joking!” he cried with hope.

“No,” Cornish said soberly.  “We’re married—­just now.  Methodist parsonage.  We’ve had our dinner,” he added hastily.

“Where’d you have it?” Ina demanded, for no known reason.

“The bakery,” Cornish replied, and flushed.

“In the dining-room part,” Lulu added.

Dwight’s sole emotion was his indignation.

“What on earth did you do it for?” he put it to them.  “Married in a bakery—­”

No, no.  They explained it again.  Neither of them, they said, wanted the fuss of a wedding.

Dwight recovered himself in a measure.  “I’m not surprised, after all,” he said.  “Lulu usually marries in this way.”

Mrs. Bett patted her daughter’s arm.  “Lulie,” she said, “why, Lulie.  You ain’t been and got married twice, have you?  After waitin’ so long?”

“Don’t be disturbed, Mother Bett,” Dwight cried.  “She wasn’t married that first time, if you remember.  No marriage about it!”

Ina’s little shriek sounded.

“Dwight!” she cried.  “Now everybody’ll have to know that.  You’ll have to tell about Ninian now—­and his other wife!”

Standing between her mother and Cornish, an arm of each about her, Lulu looked across at Ina and Dwight, and they all saw in her face a horrified realisation.

“Ina!” she said.  “Dwight!  You will have to tell now, won’t you?  Why I never thought of that.”

At this Dwight sneered, was sneering still as he went to give Grandma Gates her ride in the wheel-chair and as he stooped with patient kindness to tuck her in.

The street door was closed.  If Mrs. Bett was peeping through the blind, no one saw her.  In the pleasant mid-day light under the maples, Mr. and Mrs. Neil Cornish were hurrying toward the railway station.