" He made a charming speech at the subsequent
luncheon, in which he said that, though he personally regretted the
turn that affairs had taken, he could not honestly say that, if
matrimony were to be regarded as advisable, his friends could have
done better.
The strange thing to Howard was the contrast between his own acute
and intolerable nervousness, and the entire and radiant self-
possession of Maud. He had a bad hour on the morning of the
wedding-day itself. He had a sort of hideous fear that he had done
selfishly and perversely, and that it was impossible that Maud
could really continue to love him; that he had sacrificed her youth
to his fancy, and his vivid imagination saw himself being wheeled
in a bath-chair along the Parade of a health-resort, with Maud in
melancholy attendance.
But when he saw his child enter the church, and look up to catch
his eye, his fears melted like a vapour on glass; and his love
seemed to him to pour down in a sudden cataract, too strong for a
human heart to hold, to meet the exquisite trustfulness and
sweetness of his bride, who looked as though the gates of heaven
were ajar. After that he saw and heard nothing but Maud. They went
off together in the afternoon to a little house in Dorsetshire by a
lonely sea-cove, which Mr. Sandys had spent many glorious and
important hours in securing and arranging. It was only an hour's
journey. If Howard had needed reassuring he had his desire; for as
they drove away from Windlow among the thin cries of the village
children, Howard put his arm round Maud, and said "Well, child?"
upon which she took his other hand in both of her own, and dropping
her head on his shoulder, said, "Utterly and entirely and
absolutely proud and happy and content!" And then they sate in
silence.
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