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nothing forced or false about Hester; helping herself to bread and butter she replied:

‘I don’t ask to be justified. Other people’s beliefs don’t concern me. If it would offend you to come, you know, Clive and I could slip out quietly some morning and have it done without troubling anybody.’

‘Oh—no; no,’ Monica had muttered, feeling her pale cheeks burn suddenly. ‘I must come to my son’s wedding.’

She had not dared look at Clive or Celia. She knew that she was worsted. She knew that they were unhappy and that only Hester preserved the guise of imperturbability. She and Hester had met and their rapiers had clashed, in the presence of terribly interested witnesses; but it was she who had fallen back; her rapier that was splintered.

Afterwards, when she and Celia were left alone, desperate tears had risen and she could not conceal them. Celia came to her and put her arms around her.

‘But, you know—I do see what she means,’ she had said gently.

‘So do I!’ Monica rejoined with intense bitterness.

‘It is to make a wedding-cake out of a church—if you don’t believe anything,’ Celia said.