advised you not to trust to the post, but to telegraph. I dare say the Duke would have paid you back the few shillings; then he would have been sure to get the news in time. At present I think it very unlikely. And I am sure, for the young people’s sake, I should be sorry. But I should have telegraphed,” Mrs Marston said. And the Rector, strange to say, had never thought of that. CHAPTER XII. HALF-MARRIED. Next morning everything was in movement early in St Alban’s, E.C. Orders had been sent to the verger to have special sweepings-out and settings in order, a thing which took that functionary much by surprise. For the marriage: but then marriages were not so uncommon at St Alban’s--less uncommon than anything else. Churchings were more rare events, and demanded more consideration: for probably the married pair once united would never trouble St Alban’s more; whereas there was always a chance that babies born in the neighbourhood might grow up in it, and promote the good works of the parish, or be candidates for its charities, which was also very desirable--for the charities were large and the qualified applicants few. But it was for the marriage that all this fuss was to be made. “It must be a swell wedding,” the verger said to his wife. “You had better put on your Sunday bonnet and hang about. Sometimes they want a witness to sign the book, and there’s half-crowns going.” Accordingly all was expectation in the neighbourhood of the church. The best altar-cloth was displayed, and the pinafores taken off the cushions in the pulpit and reading-desk, and the warming apparatus lighted, though this was an expense. Mr Marston felt justly that when there was a possibility of a duke and a certainty of a duke’s daughter, extra preparations were called for. He came over himself early to see that all was ready. There was no concealing his excitement. “Has any one been here?” he asked, almost before he was within hearing of the verger. Simms answered “No”--but added, “Them churchings, Rector. You’ll take ’em after the wedding, sir?” “Oh, the churchings,” said the Rector: “are the women here?--oh, after the wedding, of course.” But then a sudden thought struck him. “Now I think of it, Simms,” he said, “perhaps we’d better have them first--at least, keep them handy, ready to begin, if necessary--for there is some one coming to the marriage who--may be perhaps a little late----” “Oh, if you knows the parties, sir,” said the verger. And just at that moment Mrs Marston came in, in her best bonnet and a white shawl. She came in by the vestry door, which she had a way of doing, though it was uncanonical, and she darted a look at her husband as she passed through and went into her own pew, which was quite in the front, near to the reading-desk. The white shawl convinced Simms without further words. Unless she knew the parties Mrs Marston never would have appeared like this. Respectability was thus given to the