Jasper's face flushed as he answered, but Stella's remained pale and set.
"Yes, everything is ready. The clergyman is a charming old gentleman, and the church is a picture inside. I tell Stella that one could not have chosen a more picturesque spot."
And he glanced toward her with the watchful smile.
Stella turned her face away.
"It is very pretty," she said, simply. "Shall we go in now? Frank will be expecting us."
"You must know," said Jasper, "that we are leading the most rustic of lives—dinner in the middle of the day, tea at five o'clock."
"I see," said Mr. Etheridge. "Quite a foretaste of Arcadia! But, after all," he added, perhaps remembering the long journey which he had been compelled to take, and which he disliked, "I can't see why you should not have been married at Wyndward."
Jasper smiled.
"And risk the chance of Lord Leycester turning up at the last moment and making a scene," he might have answered, if he had replied candidly; but instead, he said, lightly:
"Oh, that would have been too commonplace for such a romantic man as your humble servant, sir."