"I know where the old fellow lives," he said; "I'll rout him out."
He went to a little ivy-grown cottage just outside the churchyard, and presently returned with the ancient clerk.
"Mornin', miss; mornin', sir," he said, touching his battered old beaver. "I begs ten thousand pardons, but I quite forgot as how there was a wedding this mornin'; but I dessay the parson have recollected. Howsomever, I'll open the church," and he unlocked the door and signed for them to enter.
Margaret tremblingly clung a little closer to Blair's arm and he murmured a few words of encouragement.
"Hang it, Austin!" he said, aside; "it scarcely seems as if we were going to be married. It only wants a hearse——"
Austin laughed.
"Nonsense. It is just what you want. They have forgotten you are to be married, and they'll forget all about it half an hour after it is over. Here is the parson; I did his memory an injustice!"
The old gentleman came shuffling up the porch and blinked at them over his spectacles.
"Good-morning, Mr. Stanley," he said.
Blair stared, then, remembering that that was the name he had arranged to assume, returned the greeting.