“Clever enough, on my word,” cried Archdale.

“Not quite to your liking, I fancy, though,” answered Harwin.

“Do you think he would have had the wedding indoors, in the teeth of everybody?” laughed Katie.

Harwin assented, adding that he felt convinced that Master Archdale would have insisted upon all the accompaniments of a grand wedding at any cost.

“Yes, I shall have that when my time comes,” returned Stephen, looking straight before him a trifle haughtily.  But Harwin noticed that directly his eyes fell in passing back to their watching of the shore, and that one sweeping glance was given to Katie.

“But can people be married in such an instant?” asked Waldo.  “I always thought it was a work of time—­rather a formidable piece of business.”

“Oh! when you come to two or three ministers of the Church of England, and the benedictions, and all that, so it is,” said Harwin; “but the real business part is an affair of—­I was going to say less than a minute.”  He sat silent after this, with his head bent, then, lifting it suddenly, before anybody had spoken, he fixed his glance, with a musing expression, upon Waldo.  “I was wondering if I could remember the formula,” he said; “I think I can.  Mistress Royal, allow Master Archdale to take your hand a moment, if you please.”

Elizabeth made no responsive movement, and Archdale, for an instant, failed to turn toward her.  He had been looking at Katie while Harwin was speaking; but Katie drew back, hastily.

“Oh, do, Elizabeth!” she cried.  “I want to see what it is like; do try with Stephen, and let us hear.”  As she spoke, Archdale turned toward Elizabeth, courteously.

“Come, Mistress Royal,” he said, as Harwin was explaining that he had asked her because she happened to be on the proper side for a bride, “let us make an effective tableau for the amusement of these mariners, who, since they are becalmed themselves, persist in wanting something going on.”

Elizabeth had heard the entreaty in Katie’s light words.  She knew that if she herself had cared for Mr. Archdale she could never have jested at marrying him.  It made her all the more sure that Katie did care, because, otherwise, the girl would have found it great fun to rouse a little jealousy in the two admirers opposite, watching every movement.  She yielded her hand to the light clasp that held it, and listened with less interest than the others to Mr. Harwin’s distinct and rapid words until he came to the sentence, “I pronounce you man and wife.”  Then she shivered, and he had scarcely finished the adjuration that follows—­“What God hath joined together let not man put asunder,” when she snatched her hand away.

“It is too solemn,” she cried, “it is too much; we ought not to have jested so.”

Harwin laughed.

“Pardon me if I’ve made you uncomfortable,” he said; “but you will forget it in five minutes, and even for that time you must blame Master Waldo’s curiosity.”