As it did so, Berry lost his balance and, with a yell of apprehension, fell heavily into the welter of hat-and bandboxes, the cardboard of which gave right and left. Construing his involuntary action as the demonstration of a new game, Nobby immediately leaped barking upon him and began to lick his face. Daphne and Jill clung to one another, convulsed with merriment and emitting such tremulous wails of laughter as the function of breathing would permit, while, with tears coursing down his cheeks, Jonah was trying to bellow a coherent description of the catastrophe into my ear. And all the time the good old car ground raving along the road, heaving herself over the macadam in a sickening series of lurches, to every one of which we found ourselves reluctantly compelled to conform....
The bride was ten minutes late, and we beat her by a short head. As we were ushered, breathing heavily, into our places, there was a tell-tale stir at the porch, uprose the strains of a well-known hymn, the bridegroom glanced round and gave slightly at the knees, and the next moment his future wife had entered the aisle.
Furtively I felt my collar and wiped the perspiration from my face.... It was with something of a shock that, as the echoes of the “Amen” died away, I heard a familiar growl.
Hastily I turned in my seat to see Nobby three paces away. With back arched, one fore-paw raised, and his white teeth bared, he was regarding the trousers of an amateur sidesman, who had set a foot upon the broken string which trailed from his collar, with a menacing glare....
By the time I had bestowed the terrier under lock and key and returned to the church, Madrigal was signing her maiden name for the last time.
* * * * *
Five days later Berry received the following letter:—
SIR,
Mr. Douglas Bladder of The Vines, Swete Rowley, has handed us your communication of the twenty-third inst.
We are instructed to say that, while there is no doubt that its number is LF 8057, Mr. Bladder’s car did not leave the garage upon the day of the accident in which you were concerned, for the reason that he and his chauffeur were engaged in overhauling the engine.
It is therefore obvious that a mistake has been made, and that unless some other car was bearing his number, which you will agree is improbable, in the natural confusion of the moment the letters or figures or both upon the offender’s number-plate were misread.
Our client wishes us to add that, while the tone of your letter is not such as he is accustomed to, he appreciates that it was written while you were smarting under a sense of grave injury, and was indeed intended for somebody other than himself.
Yours faithfully,
BERTHEIM AND GROWTH.
This being the quarter in which the wind was sitting, we made our dispositions accordingly.