Mina strolled out of the library with an accidental air. Harry had sat down to his sandwiches and old brown. Cecily ran across to Mina and kissed her. "We're going to be married!" she whispered. She had told it all in a sentence; yet she added; "Oh, I've such a heap of things to tell you, Mina!" Was not all that scene in the Long Gallery to be reproduced--doubtless only in a faint adumbration of its real glory, yet with a sense of recovering it and living it again? "No?" cried Mina. "Oh, how splendid! Soon?" Harry threw a quick glance at Cecily. She responded by assuming a demure calmness of demeanor. "Not as soon as we could wish," said Harry, munching and sipping. "In fact, not before the day after to-morrow, I'm afraid, Madame Zabriska." "The day after----?" "What I have always hated is Government interference. Why can't I be married when I like? Why have I to get a license and all that nonsense? Why must I wait till the day after to-morrow?" He grew indignant. "It's past twelve now; it is to-morrow," said Cecily. "Quite so. As you suggest, Cecily, we could be married to-day but for these absurd restrictions. There's a train at eight from Fillingford----" "You're going--both of you--by that?" Mina cried. "I hope it suits you, because we want you to come with us, if you'll be so kind," said Harry. "You see it would look just a little unusual if we went alone," added Cecily. "And it's not going to look unusual anyhow? Are you mad? Or--or do you mean it?" "Don't you think both may be true?" asked Harry. Cecily's gravity broke down. She kissed Mina again, laughing in an abandonment of exultation. "Oh, you're both mad!" "Not at all. You're judging us by the standard of your other engaged couple to-night." "Did Mr Neeld know anything about your coming?" Mina demanded, with a sudden recollection. "Nothing at all. Did he say anything to you?" For a moment the glass of old brown halted on its way to his lips, and he glanced at Mina sharply. "No. But when I asked him if he had seen you he looked--well, just rather funny." The old brown resumed its progress. Harry was content. "There's no better meal than fresh sandwiches and old brown," he observed. "You'll come with us, won't you, and keep Cecily company at the little house till we fix it up?" Mina looked from one to the other in new amazement, with all her old excited pleasure in the Tristram ways. They did a thing--and they did not spoil it by explanations. "And Mr Gainsborough?" she asked. "We're going to leave a note for father," smiled Cecily. "You're always doing that," objected Mina. "It seems rather an early train for Mr Gainsborough," Harry suggested, laying down his napkin. "Oh, why don't you tell me something about it?" cried Mina despairingly. "But it's true? The great thing's true anyhow, isn't it?" "Well, what do you think I came down from town for?" inquired Harry. "And why have we been so long in the Gallery, Mina?"