THE WEDDING PRESENT The marriage of Jeff Ironside to Colonel Elliot's daughter created a sensation in the neighbourhood even greater than that which followed the Colonel's death.

But the ceremony itself was strictly private.

It took place so quietly and so suddenly very early on a misty October morning that it was over before most people knew anything about it.

Jim Dawlish knew, and was present with old Granny Grimshaw; but, save for the family lawyer who gave away the bride and the aged rector who married them, no one else was in the secret.
Mrs.Elliot knew, but she and her stepdaughter had never been in sympathy, and she had already left the place and gone to town.
Very small and pathetic looked the bride in her deep mourning on that dim autumn morning, but she played her part with queenly dignity, unfaltering, undismayed.

If she had acted upon impulse she was fully prepared to face the consequences.
As for Jeff, he was gruff almost to rudeness, so desperate was the turmoil of his soul.