"I think you'll be able to answer that question for
yourself. The women I wanted -- there were three of
them----" and then, as he saw that she again looked
slightly shocked, he added, "Not altogether, but consecutively,
you understand -- well, not one of them
would have me! The women who might have put up
with me -- well, I didn't seem to want them! But I
should like to say one thing to you, Mrs. Otway.
This particular affair in which you and I are interested
does seem to me, if you'll allow me to say so, 'a marriage
of true minds ---- '" He stopped abruptly, and
to her great surprise left the room without finishing
his sentence.

Such trifling, and at the time such seemingly unimportant,
little happenings are often those which
long afterwards leap out from the past, bringing with
them poignant memories of joy, of sorrow, of pain,
and of happiness.

Rose Blake will always remember that it was her
poor old German nurse, Anna Bauer, who, on her
wedding day, made her wear a white dress and a veil.
She had meant to be married, in so far as she had
given any thought to the matter at all, in her ordinary
blue serge skirt and a clean blouse.

Those about her might be able to forget, for a few
merciful hours, what lay before Jervis; but she, Rose
Otway, could not forget it. She knew that she was
marrying him now, not in order that she might be
even closer to him than she felt herself to be -- that
seemed to her impossible -- but in order that others
might think so. She would have preferred the ceremony
to take place only in the presence of his parents

[[262]]

p261 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p262w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p263

v?