Launce has put the ring on her finger. Launce has repeated the words
after the clergyman. Launce has married her! Done! Come what may of it,
done!
The service ends. Bridegroom, bride, and witnesses go into the vestry
to sign the book. The signing, like the service, is serious. No trifling
with the truth is possible here. When it comes to Lady Winwood's turn,
Lady Winwood must write her name. She does it, but without her usual
grace and decision. She drops her handkerchief. The clerk picks it up
for her, and notices that a coronet is embroidered in one corner.
The fees are paid. They leave the vestry. Other couples, when it is
over, are talkative and happy. These two are more silent and more
embarrassed than ever. Stranger still, while other couples go off with
relatives and friends, all socially united in honor of the occasion,
these two and their friends part at the church door. The respectable man
and his wife go their way on foot. The little lady with the coronet on
her handkerchief puts the bride into a cab, gets in herself, and directs
the driver to close the door, while the bridegroom is standing on the
church steps! The bridegroom's face is clouded, as well it may be.
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