"I hope she'll be serious in church at least," retorted Mrs. Deane, and went into the spare bedroom to look a little mournfully at Jessica's strapped trunks. III In the sitting-room Hugh and Jessica sat down on the rug in front of the fire. Hugh suddenly noticed her bare toes. "My sweet," he said, "did you come running downstairs to me, all in your bare toes?" Jessica leaned restfully against him as she answered: "Of course I did. I didn't dare wait in case Mother would stop me, and anyhow, I forgot about slippers." She took his hand and gently flexed the fingers one by one. "I've been mad with excitement all morning," she said. "And now you are with me I feel quite comfortable and easy and peaceful." "We ought always to be together," said Hugh emphatically. "I hate to think I'll have to leave you alone every day when I go to the office." "Oh, but that's years away. A whole month at least before we need think about it. All the same I would rather like to be a typist, or perhaps something a little grander, in your office. Couldn't it be arranged?" "It could not, darling; not possibly; but anyhow it will be good coming home to you in the evenings." "It's a pity there are so many magazine stories," said Jessica hazily, gazing into the fire. "You know the sort of stuff: bright eyes at the window, or the little woman at the garden gate. Now I shall be forced to stay on the sofa in my elegant yellow drawing-room and when you come in I shall just look up from my book in a casual way, and say, 'Hello Hugh!'" "If you do wait like that I'll know you don't love me any more. You never wait for people you love, or even people you like; you always rush to meet them." "Yes, but I'm going to be quite different now. When I'm a young matron--isn't it a ghastly expression?--I shall behave like a young matron and put away childish things and stop looking through a glass darkly." "All at once, sweetheart? Jessica, I do love you so." Hugh caught her to him and kissed her, but she gently warded him off. "I love you too, Hugh; I adore you, but you mustn't spoil my face. It isn't vanity, but I do want to look lovely for you to-day." "My dearest, you will. You couldn't look lovelier than you do now all rumpled and crumpled, but still I've often looked forward to your coming up the aisle to me in the gold frock and train that I've never seen, with a veil all over your darling face." "I'm not wearing it over my face; it didn't go with my kind of naked forehead. It just falls back from a thing they call a fillet. Have you really imagined that, Hugh?" "Often. I've lain awake at nights thinking about it, till sometimes I got so wide awake that I had to get up and walk about and hang out of the window, and sometimes I got so drugged with my own thoughts that I went to sleep thinking it was really happening." "It's queer that you should love me so much, Hugh, but I should die at once if you didn't."