“I felt when I bought it that it was shockingly unsuitable,” Mary said, laughing, as from the folds of soft white paper she lifted out a square of exquisite lace for a bridal veil, and flung it over Katherine’s hair.  “But plainly I have the eye of a seer, and I imagined you standing up to be married in a sailor hat, or something equally unsuitable, and it was not to be endured.”

“How lovely!” sighed Mrs. Burton, in an ecstasy of admiration.  But Katherine said nothing at all; her heart was too full for speech, and she was thinking of last summer, when it had seemed right that she should stand aside to let Mary have the happiness she wanted for herself.  Things had changed so much since then that it seemed scarcely possible that she could have had to bear so many heartaches.

At this moment one of the twins burst into the room with the information that the bishop had arrived, and Katherine, walking like one in a dream, went out from her chamber and crossed the homely kitchen to the store.

A murmur went round the crowded place as she entered.  Heretofore she had been to them a good, hard-working girl, with pleasant manners and a pretty face.  They had seen her staggering along the portage paths laden with heavy burdens; they had seen her struggling to row a boat up river against a strong current; they had met her dripping with wet, or covered with frost, like an Esquimaux:  but this stately girl with the beautiful face, clad in her white bridal robe, and with Mary’s veil over her shining hair, was a revelation to them, and it was Oily Dave who voiced the opinion of the assembly when he exclaimed in a very audible tone:  “My word, but ain’t she a stunner!”

He was sitting in the very front row, as if he were the most intimate and faithful friend the family possessed.  He held his treasured “top” hat carefully in front of him, as if it were a collecting bag, and he were about to take the offertory.  For the rest, his costume was something of a mixture:  a football sweater with broad stripes, a Norfolk jacket, dungaree trousers, and a fisherman’s long boots made him a striking figure even in that company of mixed costumes.  He was as self-satisfied and complacent as if he had never planned evil deeds and tried to carry them out, while the benevolence with which he smiled upon the wedding party might have led one to suppose they had no more tried or trusted friend than he.

Katherine was conscious of the critical, appraising glances of the trim little gentleman who stood by the side of Jervis, and they made her vaguely uncomfortable, coming between her and the mellow utterances of the bishop in his opening address.  But she forgot Mr. Clay and his searching looks after a time, and was sensible only of the love which wrapped her round when Miles, at a sign from the bishop, took Katherine’s hand, and, placing it in that of his father, whispered to him to give it to Jervis.

’Duke Radford, standing erect, his fine figure head and shoulders taller than those around him, except the bridegroom, smiled round on the assembly, stood holding Katherine’s ungloved hand, softly stroking and patting it, until Jervis reached forward to take it, when he relinquished it with a smile and a nod, quite satisfied to have it so.