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“Please, sir,” said Johnny respectfully, but hurriedly. “We’re looking for Mr. Frederick Murray’s place. Is this it?”

“No,” said the young man a little gruffly. “This is Mrs. Franklin’s place. Frederick Murray lives at Marsden, ten miles away.”

My heart gave a jump and then stopped beating. I know it did, although Johnny says it is impossible.

“Isn’t this Marsden?” cried Johnny chokily.

“No, this is Harrowsdeane,” said the young man, a little more mildly.

I couldn’t help it. I was tired and warm and so disappointed. I sat right down on the rustic seat behind me and burst into tears, as the story-books say.

“Oh, don’t cry, dearie,” said the young lady in a very different voice from the one she had used before. She sat down beside me and put her arms around me. “We’ll take you over to Marsden if you’ve got off at the wrong station.”

“But it will be too late,” I sobbed wildly. “The wedding is to be at twelve–and it’s nearly that now–and oh, Johnny, I do think you might try to comfort me!”

For Johnny had stuck his hands in his pockets and turned his back squarely on me. I thought it so unkind of him. I didn’t know then that it was because he was afraid he was going to cry right there before everybody, and I felt deserted by all the world.

“Tell me all about it,” said the young lady.

So I told her as well as I could all about the wedding and how wild we were to see it and why we were running away to it.

“And now it’s all no use,” I wailed. “And we’ll be punished when they find out just the same. I wouldn’t mind being punished if we hadn’t missed the wedding. We’ve never seen a wedding–and Pamelia was to wear a white silk dress–and have flower girls–and oh, my heart is just broken. I shall never get over this–never–if I live to be as old as Methuselah.”

“What can we do for them?” said the young lady, looking up at the young man and smiling a little. She seemed to have forgotten that they had just quarrelled. “I can’t bear to see children disappointed. I remember my own childhood too well.”

“I really don’t know what we can do,” said the young man, smiling back, “unless we get married right here and now for their sakes. If it is a wedding they want to see and nothing else will do them, that is the only idea I can suggest.”

“Nonsense!” said the young lady. But she said it as if she would rather like to be persuaded it wasn’t nonsense.

I looked up at her. “Oh, if you have any notion of being married I wish you would right off,” I said eagerly. “Any wedding would do just as well as Pamelia’s. Please do.”

The young lady laughed.

“One might just as well be married at two hours’ notice as two days’,” she said.

“Una,” said the young man, bending towards her, “will you marry me here and now? Don’t send me away alone to the other side of the world, Una.”

“What on earth would Auntie say?” said Una helplessly.

“Mrs. Franklin wouldn’t object if you told her you were going to be married in a balloon.”

“I don’t see how we could arrange–oh, Ted, it’s absurd.”

“‘Tisn’t. It’s highly sensible. I’ll go straight to town on my wheel for the licence and ring and I’ll be back in an hour. You can be ready by that time.”

For a moment Una hesitated. Then she said suddenly to me, “What is your name, dearie?”

“Sue Murray,” I said, “and this is my brother, Johnny. We’re twins. We’ve been twins for ten years.”

“Well, Sue, I’m going to let you decide for me. This gentleman here, whose name is Theodore Prentice, has to start for Japan in two days and will have to remain there for four years. He received his orders only yesterday. He wants me to marry him and go with him. Now, I shall leave it to you to consent or refuse for me. Shall I marry him or shall I not?”