“I shall go now,” said Katharine. “And we thank you very much,” she added, holding out her hand.
The clergyman let them out and stood looking after them for a few seconds. Then he slowly nodded twice and re-entered the church. Ralston and Katharine walked away very slowly, both looking down, and each inwardly wondering whether the other would break the silence. It was natural that they should not speak at first. The words of the service had brought very clearly before them the meaning of what they had done, and the clergyman’s short speech, made as he said for the sake of satisfying his own scruples of conscience, had influenced them by its earnestness. They reached a crossing without having exchanged a syllable. As usual in such cases, a chance exclamation broke the ice.
“Take care!” exclaimed Ralston, laying his hand on Katharine’s arm, and looking at an express wagon which was bearing down on them.
“It’s ever so far off still,” said Katharine, smiling suddenly and looking into his face. “But I like you to take care of me,” she added.
He smiled, too, and they waited for the wagon to go by. The clouds had broken away at last and the low morning sun shone brightly upon them.
“I’m so glad it’s fine on our wedding day, Jack!” exclaimed Katharine. “It was horrid yesterday afternoon. How long ago that seems! Did you hear him call me Mrs. Ralston? Katharine Ralston--how funny it sounds! It’s true, that’s your mother’s name.”
“You’ll be Mrs. John Ralston--to distinguish.” John laughed. “Yes--it does seem long ago. What did you do with yourself yesterday?”
“Yesterday? Let me see--I sat for my portrait, and then I went home, and then late in the afternoon Charlotte suddenly appeared, and then I dined with the Joe Allens--the young couple, you know, don’t you? And then I went to the dance. I hardly knew what I was doing, half the time.”
“And I hardly know why I asked the question. Isn’t it funny? I believe we’re actually trying to make conversation!”
“You are--I’m not,” laughed Katharine. “It was you who began asking. I was talking quite sentimentally and appropriately about yesterday seeming so long ago, you know. But it’s true. It does--it seems ages. I wonder when time will begin again--I feel as though it had stopped suddenly.”