Then she rang, and requested that Mr.Wardlaw, her father's solicitor and friend, would come up to her.

A messenger was despatched, not to Mr.Cunningham Haze, but to the parson of the parish, who in his turn sent to the clerk and clerk's wife, then busy in the church.

On receipt of the intelligence the two latter functionaries proceeded to roll up the carpet which had been laid from the door to the gate, put away the kneeling-cushions, locked the doors, and went off to inquire the reason of so strange a countermand.

It was soon proclaimed in Markton that the marriage had been postponed for a fortnight in consequence of the bride's sudden indisposition: and less public emotion was felt than the case might have drawn forth, from the ignorance of the majority of the populace that a wedding had been going to take place at all.
Meanwhile Miss De Stancy had been closeted with Paula for more than an hour.

It was a difficult meeting, and a severe test to any friendship but that of the most sterling sort.