"Yes. I was working in the garden—weeding the strawberry-patch, I think. They came in an automobile alone. Wife and daughter were the witnesses."
"Do you know when Mrs. Rankin and your daughter will be home?"
"By next Tuesday, at the latest. Perhaps you can call again. I trust there was nothing irregular about the marriage."
"Not so far as we know. We were anxious about the young lady. She is a friend of ours," Kirby said. "By the way, the certificate of the marriage is not on record at the court-house. Are you sure you returned it to the clerk?"
"Bless my soul, did I forget that again?" exclaimed the Reverend Nicodemus. "I'll have my daughter look for the paper as soon as she returns."
"You couldn't find it now, I suppose," Lane suggested.
The old gentleman searched rather helplessly among the papers overflowing his desk. He did not succeed in finding what he looked for.
Kirby and Rose walked back to the court-house. They had omitted to arrange with the license clerk to forward a copy of the marriage certificate when it was filed.
The rough rider left the required fee with the clerk and a bank note to keep his memory jogged up.
"Soon as Mrs. Rankin comes home, will you call her up and remind her about lookin' for the certificate?" he asked.