valancystirling | (no subject)

The next day passed for Valancy like a dream. She could not make
herself or anything she did seem real. She saw nothing of Barney,
though she expected he must go rattling past on his way to the Port
for a license.

Perhaps he had changed his mind.

But at dusk the lights of Lady Jane suddenly swooped over the crest
of the wooded hill beyond the lane. Valancy was waiting at the
gate for her bridegroom. She wore her green dress and her green
hat because she had nothing else to wear. She did not look or feel
at all bride-like--she really looked like a wild elf strayed out of
the greenwood. But that did not matter. Nothing at all mattered
except that Barney was coming for her.

"Ready?" said Barney, stopping Lady Jane with some new, horrible
noises.

"Yes." Valancy stepped in and sat down. Barney was in his blue
shirt and overalls. But they were clean overalls. He was smoking
a villainous-looking pipe and he was bareheaded. But he had a pair
of oddly smart boots on under his shabby overalls. And he was
shaved. They clattered into Deerwood and through Deerwood and hit
the long, wooded road to the Port.

"Haven't changed your mind?" said Barney.

"No. Have you?"

"No."

That was their whole conversation on the fifteen miles. Everything
was more dream-like than ever. Valancy didn't know whether she
felt happy. Or terrified. Or just plain fool.

Then the lights of Port Lawrence were about them. Valancy felt as
if she were surrounded by the gleaming, hungry eyes of hundreds of
great, stealthy panthers. Barney briefly asked where Mr. Towers
lived, and Valancy as briefly told him. They stopped before the
shabby little house in an unfashionable street. They went in to
the small, shabby parlour. Barney produced his license. So he HAD
got it. Also a ring. This thing was real. She, Valancy Stirling,
was actually on the point of being married.

They were standing up together before Mr. Towers. Valancy heard
Mr. Towers and Barney saying things. She heard some other person
saying things. She herself was thinking of the way she had once
planned to be married--away back in her early teens when such a
thing had not seemed impossible. White silk and tulle veil and
orange-blossoms; no bridesmaid. But one flower girl, in a frock of
cream shadow lace over pale pink, with a wreath of flowers in her
hair, carrying a basket of roses and lilies-of-the-valley. And the
groom, a noble-looking creature, irreproachably clad in whatever
the fashion of the day decreed. Valancy lifted her eyes and saw
herself and Barney in the little slanting, distorting mirror over
the mantelpiece. She in her odd, unbridal green hat and dress;
Barney in shirt and overalls. But it was Barney. That was all
that mattered. No veil--no flowers--no guests--no presents--no
wedding-cake--but just Barney. For all the rest of her life there
would be Barney.

"Mrs. Snaith, I hope you will be very happy," Mr. Towers was
saying.

He had not seemed surprised at their appearance--not even at
Barney's overalls. He had seen plenty of queer weddings "up back."
He did not know Valancy was one of the Deerwood Stirlings--he did
not even know there WERE Deerwood Stirlings. He did not know
Barney Snaith was a fugitive from justice. Really, he was an
incredibly ignorant old man. Therefore he married them and gave
them his blessing very gently and solemnly and prayed for them that
night after they had gone away. His conscience did not trouble him
at all.

"What a nice way to get married!" Barney was saying as he put Lady
Jane in gear. "No fuss and flub-dub. I never supposed it was half
so easy."