The youngsters pattered the awful words so glibly! Then North's prayer went forth over their kneeling figures, they rose, took his hand an instant, and turned to face an applauding world. The watcher pitied them with a great pity. Shelby followed North from chancel to vestry. The priest had laid aside stole and surplice, and stood meditatively in his cassock as the caller entered. Some men the cassock effeminates; not so North, whose virile shape it emphasized, modelling his muscles like an antique drapery. He seemed to radiate strength. The canon remarked his friend's strained face, greeted him as if governors made a practice of popping into his vestry unannounced, and bade a negro, who was folding vestments, to finish his task later. "What has happened to you?" he asked, directly they were alone. "My wife has eloped." North started at the bald announcement, but asked quietly:-- "Did she leave by the one twenty-five train?" "You saw her?" "I saw him." Ludlow needed no naming. "I came in from the west at that time for this wedding." Shelby jerked out his watch. "That train is an accommodation, making nearly all stops. They were probably too excited to consider the fact, or care. Any one taking the Southwestern Limited twenty minutes from now would make New York half an hour before them--provided they're bound for New York. Of course, there's the chance that they will change at some point to the express, which left a quarter of an hour ago. Somebody must intercept them." "And it's your present misfortune to be governor of New York," added the canon, ripping at the buttons of his cassock. "Permit me to fill your place." "It's a hateful thing to ask of you. I could ask it of no other man." North nodded, and caught up his hat and coat. "You did right to come to me, my friend." "Say to her"--they passed again into the silent nave on the way to the carriage--"say that one of the best little girls who ever lived is waiting for her mother to return from--from shopping, what you please. Say that I--" He broke off, and fronted North in the stillness. "By God! no," he burst out suddenly. "No message from me yet. I can't do it yet--"