"If only the Mayor of the Borough had performed the ceremony," Gilbert lamented. "In his nice furry red robes and cocked hat, joining you two together in the name of the Borough of Holborn, he 'd have looked rather jolly! Roger, we ought to get the Improved Tories to consider the question of Civil Marriage. We want more beauty in it. Rachel, my dear, I haven't kissed you yet. I look upon myself as Roger's best man, and I ought to kiss you!" "Very well, Gilbert," she answered, turning her face towards him. "You've deceived us all, Rachel," he said as he kissed her. "We'd made up our minds to hate you because you were taking our little Roger from us, and at first we thought we were right to hate you because you were so aggressive to us, but you've deceived us. We don't hate you. We like you, Rachel!" "Do you, Gilbert?" She turned to Ninian and Henry. "Do you like me, too?" she said. "I shouldn't mind marrying you myself," Ninian replied. "I don't see why Gilbert should get all the kisses," said Henry. "After all, I more or less gave you away, didn't I? I was there anyhow!...." So she kissed Ninian and Henry too. Then, a little later, Roger and she went off to spend a honeymoon in Normandy. 9 "I feel horribly lonely somehow," said Gilbert to Henry. Ninian, in a hurry to catch the train for Boveyhayne at Waterloo, had left them at Charing Cross. Henry nodded his head. "This marrying and giving in marriage is the devil, isn't it?" Gilbert went on. "We ought to cheer ourselves up, Quinny!" "We ought, Gilbert!" "Let's go and see my play. Perhaps that'll make us feel merry and bright!..." "No," said Henry. "It wouldn't. It 'ud depress us. We'd keep thinking of Ninian and Roger. I think we ought to get drunk, Gilbert, very and incredibly drunk...." "I should feel like Mrs. Clutters' husband if I did that," Gilbert answered. "Aren't there any other forms of debauchery? Couldn't we go to a music-hall or a picture-palace or something? Or we might discuss our future!..." "I'm sick of this boarding house we're in," Henry exclaimed. "So am I, but I don't feel like setting up house again. I'm certain you'd go and get married the moment we'd settled into a place...." "I'm not a marrying man, Gilbert," Henry interrupted. "Well, what are you, Quinny?" "I don't know!" They were wandering aimlessly along the streets. They had drifted along Regent Street, and then had drifted into Oxford Street, and were going slowly in the direction of Marble Arch. "Quinny!" said Gilbert after a while. "Yes?" Henry answered. "Have you ... have you seen Cecily since you came back?" "Yes. Twice!" Gilbert did not ask the question which was on the tip of his tongue, but Henry was willing to give the answer without being asked. "She didn't appear to know I'd been away," he said. "She knew all the same!..."