Tommy, on the other hand, put in attendance with laudable docility, claiming a place beside Honor; and all through the sermon occupied himself with the marriage service, till a gloved hand recovered possession of the prayer-book and a pair of brown eyes reproved him gravely.
"You paid no attention whatever to the service," she afterwards remarked scathingly.
"It is just what I did, right through," he returned meekly. "It's the only service that interests me."
"It was irrelevant matter!"
"Which made me miss the benefit I might have derived from the seed falling on prepared soil. Alas! see what you are responsible for!"
"I? I take no responsibility for you. And was the soil really prepared this time?" she teased.
"It was torn by the plough of eagerness and harrowed with anxiety lest I should be late and lose my place beside you," he returned feelingly.
Outside on the gravelled path, Mrs. Bright was informed by Mrs. Ironsides that she had counted sixty women in "Church," and only sixteen men, twelve of whom were married. "Scandalous!—I call it. And this is a country, where, in the midst of life one is in death!"
On their way home, Meredith and Joyce, with the parson in the car, came upon the doctor taking a "constitutional" in the moonlight and insisted on carrying him off to pot-luck.
Tommy attached himself to the Brights and received a similar invitation, while Jack was annexed by Mrs. Fox whose husband was at home and "would be charmed."