He ought to have been attending to his groomsman’s duties, and acting as escort to the young ladies who had gone down; but instead of that he paid a visit to German-place, to look at the house in which the two Bethunes had lodged; and he slowly passed up and down the Kemp-Town breakwater, striving to picture to himself the look in Maisrie’s eyes when her soul made confession; and he went to the end of the Chain Pier, to recall the tempestuous morning on which Maisrie, with her wet hair blown about by the winds, and her lips salt with the sea-spray, had asked him to kiss her, as a last farewell. And his promise?—"Promise me, Vincent, that you will never doubt that you are my dearest in all the world; promise me that you will say to yourself always and always, ’Wherever Maisrie is at this moment, she loves me—she is thinking of me.’" He had made light of her wild words; he could not believe in any farewell; and now—now all the wide, unknown world lay between him and her, and there was nothing for him but the memory of her broken accents, her sobs, her distracted, appealing eyes. Mrs. Ellison affected not to notice his remissness; nay, she went on the other tack. "Don’t you think it is a pity, Vin," she said on one occasion when she found him alone—and there was a demure little smile on her very pretty and expressive face: "Don’t you think it is a pity the two marriages couldn’t be on the same day?" "What two marriages?" he demanded, with a stare. "Oh, yes, we are so discreet!" she said, mockingly. "We wouldn’t mention anything for worlds. But other people aren’t quite blind, young gentleman. And I do think it would have been so nice if the four of us could have gone off on this trip together; Louie despises conventions—she wouldn’t mind. Many’s the time I’ve thought of it; four make such a nice number for driving along the Riviera; and four who all know each other so well would be quite delightful. If it came to that, I dare say it could be arranged yet: I’m sure I should be willing to have our marriage postponed for a month, and I have no doubt I could persuade Hubert to agree: then the two weddings on the same day would be jolly—" "What are you talking about, aunt!" he exclaimed. "Oh, well," she said, with a wise and amiable discretion, "I don’t want to hurry on anything, or even to interfere. But of course we all expect that the attentions you have been paying to Louie Drexel will lead to something—and it would have been very nice if the two weddings could have been together." He was still staring at her. "Mind you," she went on, "I wish you distinctly to understand that Louie has not spoken a single word to me on the subject—" "Well, I should hope not!" said Vincent, with quick indignation.