She had been living at too high an emotional strain to have any surplus energy for originating, and she knew from experience that all creative work demands both strength and spirit, heart and soul--everything that is in you, if it is to be worth while.
These and other disconnected thoughts flitted fugitively through her mind as she sat waiting for Penelope's return.

Vague visions of the future; memories--hastily slurred over; odd, rather frightened musings on the morrow's ceremony, when Penny would bind herself to Ralph ".

.

.
_in the sight of God, and in the face of this congregation_." Rather curiously Nan reflected that she had never actually read the Marriage Service--only caught chance phrases here and there in the course of other people's marriages.

She switched on the light and hunted about for a book of Common Prayer, turning the pages with quick, nervous fingers till she came to the one headed: _The Solemnization of Matrimony_.