Secret History Revealed By Lady Peggy O'MalleyWilliamson, C. N. (Charles Norris)
General
Secret History Revealed By Lady Peggy O'Malley
Williamson, C. N. (Charles Norris)
Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Soldiers -- Fiction; Young women -- Fiction
People were whispering and rustling in their seats, wondering if it were
not almost the time for the bride music to begin. I had a jumpy
sensation that somebody behind me must be staring, and strongly willing
me to look round. Always I have been sensitive to that kind of
influence, and often, too, I've tried to make others feel it. I kept
turning my head, but could see no one who seemed to be taking an undue
interest in me. Presently, however, I caught Tony's eyes, which fixed
themselves on mine in an owlish stare.
"What makes you keep on twisting round like that?" he inquired in a
stage whisper. "Are you looking for any one in particular?"
"No--o," I said, "but I have a funny sort of feeling as if some one were
looking for me!"
"By Jove!" exclaimed Tony, and repressed himself at a glare from his
mother. "I wonder if it's possible----" He stopped, and began carefully
to smooth his silk hat which was poised on his knee.
"If what's possible?" I wanted to know, bending my head near to his,
regardless of somebody's plume which grazed my eye.
"Oh--er, nothing much. Only just a silly idea of mine."
"Tell me, and let me judge whether it's silly or not. You're rousing my
curiosity." And all the while I tingled with that almost irresistible
desire to turn my head again. It was as if I were missing something very
important.
"I'd rather not now," said Tony. "I'll tell you afterward."
Before I had time to wheedle the mystery out of him (as I felt confident
I could) the "Wedding March" from Lohengrin struck up. Of course, Diana
_would_ have that! It went with St. George's and the rest of it: the
"historic" thing.
She came up the aisle, her hand on Father's arm.
"Oh, doesn't he look _handsome_?" murmured Kitty Main.
"He?" I murmured back.
"Lord Ballyconal. But dear Diana is wonderful, of course."
Her wondrousness was largely a tribute to Kitty, who had given the bride
everything she had on, everything that was packed away in her trunks at
home, or laid out ready to go away in.
It all passed off exactly like any other wedding on a grand scale,
except that Tony, sitting by my side, drew a long breath when the bishop
who was marrying Diana to Sidney Vandyke finished the conventional pause
following "or else forever after hold his peace." I flashed another
glance at Tony but he was looking more like an imperturbable Billiken
than he had ever looked.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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