No wonder, either, that before Herbert's car, with Louis in charge of the blossom raid, had cleared the back gate, there had puffed in another motor--two this time--Le Blanc in one, with his friend, The Architect, beside him, the seats packed full of children, their faces scrubbed to a phenomenal cleanliness, their hair skewered with gay ribbons, all their best clothes on their backs; madame la marquise and Marc in the other, an old weather-beaten fisherman--an uncle of Gaston's, too lame to walk--beside her, and bundled up on the back seat two lean withered fishwomen in black bombazine and close-fitting white caps--a cousin and an aunt of the groom--the first time any one of the three had ever stepped foot in a car. As madame and her strange crew entered the court, I turned instinctively to Lemois, wondering how he would deport himself when the crucial moment arrived--and a car-load of relatives certainly seemed to express that fatality--but he was equal to the occasion. "Ah, madame!" he said in his courtliest manner, his hand over his heart, "who else in the wide world would have thought of so kindly an act? These poor people will bless you to their dying day. And it is delightful to see you again, Monsieur Marc. You have, I know, come to help madame in her good works. As I have so often told her, she is----" "And why should I not give them pleasure, you dear Lemois? See how happy they are. And this is not half of them! No, don't get out, mère Francine--you are all to keep on to the church and get into your seats before the village people crowd it full; and you, Auguste"--this to her chauffeur--"are to go back to Buezval for the others--they are all waiting." Here she espied Herbert on a ladder tacking some blossoms over the doorway. "Ah!--monsieur, aren't you very happy it has turned out so well? I caught only a glimpse of you as you dashed past a few minutes ago or I should have held you up and made you bring the balance of the old fishwomen. They are all crazy to come. Ah! but you needn't to have come down. It is so good to see you again," and she shook his hand heartily. "But what a morning for a wedding! Did you notice as you came along the shore road the little puff clouds skipping out to sea for very joy and hear the birds splitting their throats in song? Even my own head is getting turned with all this billing and cooing, and I warn all of you right here"--and she swept her glance over the men gathered about her, her eyes twinkling in merriment--"that you must be very careful to keep out of my way or the first thing you know one of you will be whisked off to the altar and married before you know it. And now I am going upstairs to see how my little bride gets on, if Monsieur Marc will be good enough to carry my heavy wraps inside." She turned, stopped for an instant attracted by something she saw through the archway of the court, and burst into a peal of ringing laughter.