The vision of a Cave Girl downing a surprised Cave Man almost made Marise laugh; and then it was time for the ring. Good gracious, the _ring_! Of course, no one had thought of it! There was an instant's stage-wait. Marise's eyes turned to her mother and saw Mums tearing off a glove to supply the necessary object. Far more dramatic, Severance had jumped up and was pulling from the least finger of his left hand a gold snake-ring which had been made for his mother in Athens. Yes, he would _love_ to have Marise married to Garth with that! But, after all, the bridegroom had brought the ring. It was only that for a few seconds he had forgotten. Perhaps the look he had exchanged with his bride had made him forget! He remembered, however, before Mums or Severance could step into the breach. In fact, he gave them no breach to step into. "With this ring I thee wed, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow," Marise heard him repeat, as he slipped over the third finger of her left hand the circlet retrieved in haste from his khaki tunic. She glanced at the ring as it slid loosely on, and was amazed to see what such an outsider had chosen. The "smart thing" in London and New York was, not to have the "stodgy old curtain-ring" which had been woman's badge of subjection for centuries. Instead, the idea was a band of platinum set round with diamonds; and this was what Garth had hit upon! While Marise was on her knees--shamefaced because there was nothing she dared pray about--she thought of the ring, and wondered who on earth had put Garth up to getting it? * * * * * When all was over, and the words which should be momentous were spoken, "I pronounce you man and wife," the girl lifted her face with the hardest expression it had ever worn. Eyes and lips said, "This is where the bridegroom kisses the bride. But that's not in _our_ programme. Don't dare to take advantage of your Colonel being here." Whether Garth read the signal, or whether he'd no intention of keeping the time-honoured custom, he refrained. Instead of a kiss, he gave the bride a slight smile, gone so quickly she wondered if she'd imagined it. In another moment, after she'd been pressed in her mother's arms, Lord Pobblebrook was shaking hands; and then came Severance. It was a good minute for him, because Garth was kept busy by a kind Colonel and a not very kind mother-in-law. "Let no man put them asunder!" the Reverend David Jones had just said, but there already was the man who intended, in the devil's good time, to disobey that command. "This has been the worst half-hour of my life," Tony groaned. "My God, how I've suffered! I all but sprang up and yelled 'Stop!' when the fool looked round for someone to say why the marriage shouldn't take place----" "'Or else _for ever after_ hold his peace,'" quoted Marise. "Dash it all, don't rub things in," Severance begged. "I didn't know how bad it would be----"