Not a living thing was to be seen except the wet sheep, nor did anything stir either within or without till an outside car, one seat overturned to save the cushions from the wet, came careering up the avenue.  There was a shaggy horse and a wild-looking driver in a long, shaggy frieze ulster.  Even now, at the last moment, Alice expected the drawing-room door to open and her mother to come rushing out to wish her good-bye.  But Mrs. Barton remained implacable, and after laying one more kiss on her sister’s pale cheek, Alice, in a passionate flood of tears, was driven away.

In streaming mackintoshes, and leaning on dripping umbrellas, she found her husband, and Gladys and Zoe Brennan, waiting for her in the porch of the church.

‘Did you ever see such weather?’ said Zoe.

‘Isn’t it dreadful!’ said Gladys.

‘It was good of you to come,’ said Alice.

‘It was indeed!’ said the bridegroom.

‘What nonsense!’ said Zoe.  ’We were only too pleased; and if to-day be wet, to-morrow and the next and the next will be sunshine.

And thanking Zoe inwardly for this most appropriate remark, the party ascended the church toward the altar-rails, where Father Shannon was awaiting them.  Large, pompous, and arrogant, he stood on his altar-steps, and his hands were crossed over his portly stomach.  On either side of him the plaster angels bowed their heads and folded their wings.  Above him the great chancel window, with its panes of green and yellow glass, jarred in an unutterable clash of colour; and the great white stare of the chalky walls, and the earthen floor with its tub of holy water, and the German prints absurdly representing the suffering of Christ, bespoke the primitive belief, the coarse superstition, of which the place was an immediate symbol.  Alice and the doctor looked at each other and smiled, but their thoughts were too firmly fixed on the actual problem of their united lives to wander far in the most hidden ways of the old world’s psychical extravagances.  What did it matter to them what absurd usages the place they were in was put to?—­they, at least, were only making use of it as they might of any other public office—­the police-station, where inquiries are made concerning parcels left in cabs; the Commissioner before whom an affidavit is made.  And it served its purpose as well as any of the others did theirs.  The priest joined their hands, Edward put the ring on Alice’s finger, and the usual prayers did no harm if they did no good; and having signed their names in the register and bid good-bye to the Miss Brennans, they got into the carriage, man and wife, their feet set for ever upon one path, their interests and delights melted to one interest and one delight, their separate troubles merged into one trouble that might or might not be made lighter by the sharing; and penetrated by such thoughts they leaned back on the blue cushions of the carriage, happy, and yet a little frightened.