And now, when the blue moon had risen, the impossible thing happened, and the man had come, he might just as well, in fact a great deal better, have stayed away.

The whole thing was a waste and failure from beginning to end.

The tea was a waste and a failure, for Martha would bring it in a quarter of an hour too soon; the cake was a waste and a failure, for nobody ate any of it; and she was a waste and a failure--she hardly knew why.

She cut her cake with trembling fingers and offered it, blushing as the gash in its side revealed the thoroughly unwholesome nature of its interior.

She felt ashamed of its sugary artifice, its treacherously festive air, and its embarrassing affinity to bride's-cake.