“But I don’t want to be held back.  Shall we report ourselves to the matrimonial congress?”

“Oh no, not yet, Mr. Douglas; you take wonderful liberties with a new acquaintance.”

Some distance off, Mr. Terry was trying to still the voice of Marjorie.  “I saw him, granpa, I saw Jim with my very own eyes.  Oh, these men will break my heart!”

The first parties to perpetrate matrimony were Ben Toner and Biddy Sullivan.  Mr. Toner, to use his own expressive language, was afraid Serlizer might round on him if he delayed.  Therefore, Father McNaughton was called in, and, with the aid of Rufus Hill and Barney Sullivan, groomsmen, Norah Sullivan and Christie Hislop, bridesmaids, and the Bigglethorpes and Lajeunesses, spectators, the knot was tied.  A honeymoon trip of two days to Toronto, where, in their new clothes and white cotton gloves, they were the admired of all beholders, rounded off the affair, and delivered Ben from all fear of the redoubtable Serlizer.  Next Sunday morning there was a great commotion in the Church of St. Cuthbert’s in the Fields.  Miss Newcome, gorgeous of attire, supported by Tryphena in her very best, first marched proudly up the aisle, and then came the corporal, in full uniform, even to his stock, and adorned with medals and clasps which told of his warlike achievements, backed by Mr. Terry in an unostentatious suit of black broadcloth.  Shortly before the close of the service, Mr. Perrowne, in his most ecclesiastical manner, called the parties up, and put them through their catechism.  The corporal answered with military precision and dignity, and Serlizer, glancing at his martial magnificence, was so proud of the bridegroom that she felt equal to answering a bench of bishops.  Mrs. Newcome, who had given her daughter away, remarked, as all the bridal party retired from the vestry to receive their friends’ congratulations, that the constable, for a widower, was a very proper man, and Serlizer might have done much worse.  To his best man, Mr. Terry, the corporal said:  “Sergeant-major, I have got my guard.  A prisoner may slip from me, Sergeant-major, but when that strapping woman puts her arms round him, he’ll be as helpless as a child.  I shall apply to the Council for an increase of pay.”  Soon afterwards, Maguffin got a holiday, went to Dromore, where Miss Tolliver was sojourning with Mrs. Thomas, took that lady to Collingwood, the coloured Baptist preacher of which united them, and came home triumphantly in the stage with his bride.  They received a great ovation in the kitchen, and, Mr. Terry having joined the party, played the geographical game till midnight, as a sober, improving, and semi-religious way of celebrating the event.  Mr. Maguffin remarked that the Baktis preacher had promised, out of the two-dollar fee, to insert a notice of the marriage in a leading paper, adding the words, “No Cards,” but, said Tobias, “he warn’t nebber moah leff in all hees life, ’kase here’s the keerds and heaps on ’em.  Yah! yah! yah!”