"Said what?" George wanted to know. "I didn't hear anyone. And be quiet, Eddie--people are looking at you." _You don't have to be quiet unless you really want to. Don't let them rope you into anything, Eddie--it still isn't too late._ Eddie looked in vain for the source of the voice but everyone around him seemed so utterly unperturbed that he could only conclude that he was hearing things. Could this have been the voice of his conscience, telling him to get out while the getting was good? _Conscience, smonscience. No such thing, Eddie. It's me._ "Well, who are _you_?" George said, "_Will_ you shut up, Eddie? Everyone's staring." After that it wasn't easy. Judy joined him at the altar but he listened to the ceremony with only one ear. With the other he tried to pay attention to the voice which he alone heard. Since it continued and since he was the only one who heard it, he concluded quite logically that he was going off his rocker. Then maybe he _was_ being roped into something--because if the prospect of marriage to Judy made him feel this way, then maybe he'd better call the whole thing off before it was too late. Or had the strange voice put that idea into his head? Come to think of it, here was a nice pleasant female voice. It didn't rasp like Mrs. Wilkins' voice and it didn't hold the slight suggestion of a whine dormant in her daughter Judy's. "Do you, Edward, take this girl Judy, to be your lawfully wedded wife?" * * * * * Silence, except for a few sobs and whimpers in the sea of faces around them. "Do you, Edward...." _Don't do it, Eddie. Do it and that'll be the end for you. You'd regret it something awful._ "You think so, Miss, ah--" _I'll tell you my name after you refuse. You'll find out a lot of things after._ George wailed in Eddie's ear, "For gosh sakes, boy--you're holding up the works! And quit that mumbling to yourself. Just say yes." "_Hmmm_," said Eddie, cogitating. "... And do you, Judy, take this man Edward--" Apparently his _hmmm_ had been taken as an affirmative if nervous response. _You're right, Eddie--that's just what happened. Only don't let them go on. In a moment it will be too late, and you'll be stuck._ "You think so, eh?" "Shut _up_!" George hissed in his ear. "... To have and to hold through sickness and in health, till--" The wind came up so suddenly, and with it the clouds, that one moment they stood in a bright sunshiny garden, the next it was dark and somber and overhead lightning flashed and thunder rolled sullenly. The rain came down in thick sheets from what had been a moment before a wonderfully clear blue sky. Even George's composure received a serious dent. "It just can't happen that fast!" he cried. Judy sobbed, "My gown. Oh, my precious gown!" "I said, do you, Judy...." _Don't let him go on, Eddie. The rain will add to the confusion. Tell him you never said yes--you never did, you know._ "That's true. I didn't."