But a couple of hundred yards further on, at a bend of the road, they saw a little girl shading her eyes with her hand and gazing towards the sun.  She wore a short blue serge frock, and she had long restless legs, and the word Formidable was on her forehead, and her eyes were all screwed up in the strong sunshine.  And in her hand were flowers.

“There she is, after all!” said Edward, quickly.

Olive Two nodded.  Olive Two also blushed, for Mimi was the first person acquainted with her to see her after her marriage.  She blushed because she was now a married woman.

Mimi, who with much prudence had managed so that the meeting should not occur exactly in front of the house, came towards the carriage.  The pony was walking up a slope.  She bounded forward with her childish grace and with the awkwardness of her long legs, and her hair loose in the breeze, and she laughed nervously.

“Good morning, good morning,” she cried.  “Shall I jump on the step?  Then the horse won’t have to stop.”

And she jumped lightly on to the step and giggled, still nervously, looking first at the bridegroom and then at the bride.  The bridegroom held her securely by the shoulder.

“Well, Mimi,” said Olive Two, whose shyness vanished in an instant before the shyness of the child.  “This is nice of you.”

The two women kissed.  But Mimi did not offer her cheek to the bridegroom.  He and she simply shook hands as well as they could with a due regard for Mimi’s firmness on the step.

“And who woke you up, eh?” Edward Coe demanded.

“Nobody,” said Mimi; “I got up by myself, and,” turning to Olive Two, “I’ve made this bouquet for you, auntie.  There aren’t any flowers in the fields.  But I got the chrysanthemum out of the greenhouse, and put some bits of ferns and things round it.  You must excuse it being tied up with darning wool.”

She offered the bouquet diffidently, and Olive Two accepted it with a warm smile.

“Well,” said Mimi, “I don’t think I’d better go any further, had I?”

There was another kiss and hand-shaking, and the next moment Mimi was standing in the road and waving a little crumpled handkerchief to the receding victoria, and the bride and bridegroom were cricking their necks to respond.  She waved until the carriage was out of sight, and then she stood moveless, a blue and white spot on the green landscape, with the morning sun and the sea behind her.

“Exactly like a little woman, isn’t she?” said Edward Coe, enchanted by the vision.

“Exactly!” Olive Two agreed.  “Nice little thing!  But how tired and unwell she looks!  They did well to bring her away.”

“Oh!” said Edward Coe, “she probably didn’t sleep well because she was afraid of oversleeping herself.  She looked perfectly all right yesterday.”

THE SUPREME ILLUSION