There was no earthly reason to delay the wedding. The doctors had not made up their minds as to the date of Mr. Carmichael's operation and the sooner his wife was free to devote all her energies to this decision the better.
Lady Cardew advised haste on account of her own private recollection that Clifford had, more than once, been guilty of changing a matrimonially-inclined mind. Had she imparted this news to Ferlie the latter might have insisted on delay; at least until Cyprian should be completely out of her range, in Burma. As it was, he received a silver-edged invitation to the wedding with everybody else; though Mrs. Carmichael hoped to give him to understand quite clearly that he had fallen from grace, when they met face to face on the Day.
He had decided—nearly—to refuse it.
He had decided—nearly—that Ferlie could never have meant anything at all by that most particularly Ferlie-esque mood.
He had decided—nearly—that he had done Right.
But the Daimon produced nothing to demonstrate that virtue brings its own reward.
He had made two attempts to see Ferlie and arrive at some sort of an explanation, but on each occasion she had deliberately frustrated him.
He had found it impossible to make his letter of congratulation anything but stereotyped. Cyprian was not good at expressing himself except in reports where exhaustive information was required in condensed form. It would be more than necessary for him to send Ferlie a wedding present.
Nothing impersonal could prove of interest in the ancestral halls of Mainwaring. Yet, there did not seem to be any personal message that Ferlie would be likely to welcome from him at the moment. A younger man had felt more cause for resentment, that Ferlie, during the short intimate moments when she hailed their recovered friendship, had not confided in him her intention of marrying this man. Cyprian was, himself, incapable of resentment against her, however well-deserved.
By chance, he caught sight of something in a jeweller's window which attracted him for unanalysable reasons: it was a small golden apple attached to a slender gold chain. By means of a catch, cunningly concealed under the leaf, it split in half, revealing a tiny magnifying mirror and a minute powder-puff. Round the mirror was engraved the legend, "To the Fairest."