He did not wait till Belinda reached the bottom of the staircase. There was a sort of ceremonial law to be observed, and he was not to speak to Miss Lawford upon this special morning until he met her in the vestry at Hillingsworth church; so Letitia and Mrs. Arundel hustled the young man into one of the carriages, while Major Lawford ran to receive his daughter at the foot of the stairs.
The Arundel carriage drove off about five minutes before the vehicle that was to convey Major Lawford, Belinda, and as many of the girl bridesmaids as could be squeezed into it without detriment to lace and muslin. The rest went with Mrs. Lawford in the third and last carriage. Hillingsworth church was about three–quarters of a mile from the Grange. It was a pretty irregular old place, lying in a little nook under the shadow of a great yew–tree. Behind the square Norman tower there was a row of poplars, black against the blue summer sky; and between the low gate of the churchyard and the grey, moss–grown porch, there was an avenue of good old elms. The rooks were calling to each other in the topmost branches of the trees as Major Lawford's carriage drew up at the churchyard gate.
Belinda was a great favourite amongst the poor of Hillingsworth parish, and the place had put on a gala–day aspect in honour of her wedding. Garlands of honeysuckle and wild clematis were twined about the stout oaken gate–posts. The school–children were gathered in clusters in the churchyard, with their pinafores full of fresh flowers from shadowy lanes and from prim cottage–gardens,––bright homely blossoms, with the morning dew still upon them.
The rector and his curate were standing in the porch waiting for the coming of the bride; and there were groups of well–dressed people dotted about here and there in the drowsy–sheltered pews near the altar. There were humbler spectators clustered under the low ceiling of the gallery––tradesmen's wives and daughters, radiant with new ribbons, and whispering to one another in delighted anticipation of the show.
Everybody round about the Grange loved pretty, genial Belinda Lawford, and there was universal rejoicing because of her happiness.
The wedding party came out of the vestry presently in appointed order: the bride with her head drooping, and her face hidden by her veil; the bridesmaids' garments making a fluttering noise as they came up the aisle, like the sound of a field of corn faintly stirred by summer breezes.
Then the grave voice of the rector began the service with the brief preliminary exordium; and then, in a tone that grew more solemn with the increasing solemnity of the words, he went on to that awful charge which is addressed especially to the bridegroom and the bride:
"I require and charge you both, as ye will answer at the dreadful day of judgment, when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed, that if either of you know any impediment, why ye may not be lawfully joined together in matrimony, ye do now confess it. For be ye well assured––––"
The rector read no further; for a woman's voice from out the dusky shadows at the further end of the church cried "Stop!"
There was a sudden silence; people stared at each other with scared faces, and then turned in the direction whence the voice had come. The bride lifted her head for the first time since leaving the vestry, and looked round about her, ashy pale and trembling.