"I leave the after-life to the illuminated--to Symeon and his following. I want nothing but the woman I love. Here or hereafter, for me there is nothing else. Vera, forget that I ever tried to forsake you--that I ever set my soul's ransom above my thoughts of you. It was a short madness, a cowardly endeavour. Forget it all, as I shall from this hour. Here are you and I--in this little world which is the only one we know--with just a few more years of youth and love. Let us make the most of them; and when the fire of life dies down, when these fierce heart-throbs are over, we will give our fading years to penitence and prayer." This is what happens when a man of Claude Rutherford's temperament puts his hand to the plough. CHAPTER XXI Just two years after the sudden close of Mr. Rutherford's retreat there was a quiet wedding in Father Hammond's chapel--a bride without bridesmaids, a marriage without music, a bride in a pale grey gown and a black hat, with just a sprinkling of the Disbrowe clan to keep her in countenance. Three stately aunts, Lady Okehampton being by far the most human of the three, and their three noble husbands, with Lady Susan Amphlett, vivacious as ever, and immensely pleased with her friend. From a conversational point of view she had been living upon this marriage all through the little season of November fog and small dinner-parties at restaurants or at home. She knew so much more than anybody else, and what she knew was what everybody wanted to know. She discussed the subject at Ritz's, at Claridge's, at the Savoy, at the Carlton, and seemed to have something fresh to say at each place of entertainment. There was more variety in her information than even in the _hors d'oeuvres_, which rise in a crescendo of novelty in unison with the newness of the hotel. People wondered they had not married sooner, since, of course, everybody knew it must end in marriage. Susie shrugged her pretty shoulders, and flashed her diamond necklace at the company. "The sweet thing is _exaltée_. She is one of Francis Symeon's flock; and she thought respect for her husband obliged her to wait two years. She only left off her mourning last week." "But considering that she was carrying on with Rutherford years before Provana's death?" "You none of you understand her. Their friendship was purely platonic. She and I were like sisters, and I was in and out of her house just as Claude was. There never was a more innocent attachment. I used to call them Paul and Virginia." "I should think Paolo and Francesca would be more like it," murmured one of the company. Susie shook her fan at him. "You men will never believe in a virtuous friendship. However, there they are--absolutely devoted to each other. They will be the happiest couple in London, and they mean to entertain a great deal." "Then I hope they are on the look-out for a pearl among chefs. People won't go to Portland Place to eat second-rate dinners."