"Happy day! I see you yet, standing in the hedge by the Red House, and I believing you a vision." "I could hardly believe my eyes either. You seemed to come jumping right out of the sky." "I jumped right into heaven--the highest jump that ever was made." "I was a bit put out at first, you know----" "I know you were." "I thought you had learned we were coming, and had followed us here." "Whereas----" he laughed. "Exactly!" PART THE FIFTH I "But yes, I can marry you in the church," said the Vicar, blowing out smoke, and laughing enjoyably across at Graeme, who sat in another garden chair under the big trees in front of the Vicarage. "In spite of the fact that we are aliens?" "Oh, it is not so bad as that. We ab-sorbed you by conquest and so you are really a part of us. We are all one family now." "And such a marriage would be perfectly legal and unassailable?" "I shall marry you more firmly than if you were married in Cant-er-bury Cath-edral," laughed the Vicar. "That should suffice. But why more firmly? How improve on perfection?" "I will tell you," said the Vicar, with increased enjoyment, as he leaned forward and tapped Graeme's knee. "It is this way.--If you are married in Cant-er-bury Cath-edral you can be divorced,--n'est-ce pas? Oui! Eh bien!--If you are married in my church of Sark you can never be divorced. C'est ca! It is the old Norman law." "We will be married in your church of Sark," said Graeme, with conviction. "That is right. I shall marry you so that you shall never be able to get away from one another." "Please God, we'll never want to!" "Ah yes! Of course. C'est ca!" II "We have never had a case of the kind, as far as I know. Certainly not in my time," said the Seigneur, smiling quizzically across the tea-table at Graeme. "But you gentlemen of the pen are allowed a certain amount of license in such matters, are you not?" "We sometimes take it, anyhow. But one likes to stick as close to fact as possible." They were sitting in the shady corner in front of the Seigneurie, with four dogs basking in the sun beyond, and beyond them the shaven lawns and motionless trees, the leafy green tunnel that led to the lane, and a lovely glimpse into the enclosed gardens through the ancient gateway whose stones had known the saints of old. Graeme had put a certain proposition to the Lord of the Island, nominally in connection with the story he was busy upon, but in reality of vital concern to the larger story in which Margaret and he were writing the history of their lives. "Sark, you know, is a portion of the British Empire, or perhaps I should say the British Empire belongs to Sark, but we are not under British law. We are a law unto ourselves here," said the Seigneur. "And the authority of a British Court would carry no weight with you? In the case I have put to you, if the Court of Chancery ordered you to surrender the young lady, you would refuse to do so?"