Meanwhile, the whole congregation of wedding guests lingered in the church, and gathered into groups to talk over the strange events that had just happened before their eyes. They were not disappointed, those wedding guests. Far from that. They had got so much more than they expected! They had not only seen the bride, the bridegroom, the bridesmaids, the bride's mother, and all their dresses, which had been made in New York, after the latest fashion; they had not only seen the whole marriage ceremony performed, and noted the demeanor of every one concerned in it, from the rector who read the rites to the smallest bridesmaid who held the glove; they had not only seen all these pageantries which they had expected to see, but they had seen a great deal more than they had bargained for. They had witnessed the performance of a startling drama in real life--the arrest of a marriage by the sudden appearance of the would-be bridegroom's wife. Now, they had got a great deal more than they had looked for, besides having something to talk about all the rest of their lives. They could not leave the church, though the dinner hour was at hand, and most of them had far to go to reach their own homes. They collected in little crowds to discuss the interruption. "Who was the woman, did anybody know? When did she come to the neighborhood? Had any one seen or heard of her before to-day?" Such questions as these went around. At last some one said that the stranger had been staying at Miss Sibby Bayard's for the last week. And immediately Miss Sibby Bayard became the center of attraction and the most important person in the assembly. The people crowded around her, plied her with a score of questions before she could answer one. "Yes!" she exclaimed, at last, impatiently. "Yes! She has been staying at my house for five days past. She came from Califoundery, passenger in the ship where Roland was third mate. Yes! The boy fetched her to me, 'cause she had business in this neighborhood." "Did you know the nature of her business?" asked the fiery, red-headed, hot-tempered, little William Elk. "Never dreamed of her doing this here. Thought she was a widdy woman. Thought her business was money. Why, I fetched her to church this morning myself, without a notion that she wanted to come here for anything but just to see the wedding. And she was awful anxious to get here before the ceremony was begun." "It is a great pity that you did not arrive before it was finished," said the tall, dark, gloomy Thomas Grandiere.