His Excellency arrived at last--in a low, swift-running automobile, the chauffeur of which seemed to know the road very well, and seemed also to be acquainted with every turn in the village. There was no one to notice that, when he passed the gates of Killimaga, he laughed quietly.
At Killimaga the gardens had never looked lovelier. Autumn was kind and contributed almost a summer sun.
Father Murray tore himself away from his guests at the rectory--and who should those guests be but the old friends who had for so long neglected him--to run up before the ceremony to see Ruth. She was already arrayed in her bridal finery, but she rushed out to meet him when she heard that he had arrived.
Holding her off at arm's length, he looked at her and said, "I think, dearie, that I am going to die very soon."
"Die! Why, you old love, how could you get that notion into your head?"
"Because," he answered, "I am so very, very happy--too happy. I have had a great deal more, dear, than I was ever entitled to in this life. When I sent you away and went to Rome, I feared I had given you up forever; and, behold, here I am, with the silver hairs coming--a priest with all the consolations that a priest can have, and yet I have a daughter, too." And smiling in his own winning way, he added, "And such a daughter!--even if she is really only a niece."
Ruth laughed softly and drew his arm around her as she laid hers lightly on his shoulder.
"I am afraid," she said, "that the daughter never deserved the kind of a daddy she has had--the only one she ever knew. If Carlotta--"
But Father Murray interrupted hastily as he observed the touch of sorrow in her voice.
"Do not think of her to-day, my dear," he said. "Put her out of your mind. You have prayed for her, and so have I. It is all we can do, and we can always pray. Forget her until to-morrow and then--never forget."
Seeing that the sad look had not been entirely chased away, he added, cheerfully: "Now, before I go back to the Bishop and my friends, I want to ask you one serious question."
Ruth looked up with sudden interest. "As many as you like."
He took her hands in his and looked keenly into her face. "It was always a mystery to me," he said, "how you and Mark fell in love with each other so promptly. He saw you coming out of the tree-door, then he met you once or twice, and after that he lost his head; and you--minx!--you lost yours. I have often heard of love at first sight, but this is the only example I have ever seen of it. Explain, please, for the ways of youth are strange, and even yet--old as I am--I have not learned to understand them."