The wake departed, and the guysers came. There was loud

applause, and shouting and excitement as the old mystery play of

St. George, in which every man present had acted as a boy,

proceeded, with banging and thumping of club and dripping

pan.

"By Jove, I got a crack once, when I was playin' Beelzebub,"

said Tom Brangwen, his eyes full of water with laughing. "It

knocked all th' sense out of me as you'd crack an egg. But I

tell you, when I come to, I played Old Johnny Roger with St.

George, I did that."

He was shaking with laughter. Another knock came at the door.

There was a hush.

"It's th' cab," said somebody from the door.

"Walk in," shouted Tom Brangwen, and a red-faced grinning man

entered.

"Now, you two, get yourselves ready an' off to blanket fair,"

shouted Tom Brangwen. "Strike a daisy, but if you're not off

like a blink o' lightnin', you shanna go, you s'll sleep

separate."

Anna rose silently and went to change her dress. Will

Brangwen would have gone out, but Tilly came with his hat and

coat. The youth was helped on.

"Well, here's luck, my boy," shouted his father.

"When th' fat's in th' fire, let it frizzle," admonished his

uncle Frank.

"Fair and softly does it, fair an' softly does

it," cried his aunt, Frank's wife, contrary.

"You don't want to fall over yourself," said his uncle by

marriage. "You're not a bull at a gate."

"Let a man have his own road," said Tom Brangwen testily.

"Don't be so free of your advice--it's his wedding this

time, not yours."

"'E don't want many sign-posts," said his father. "There's

some roads a man has to be led, an' there's some roads a

boss-eyed man can only follow wi' one eye shut. But this road

can't be lost by a blind man nor a boss-eyed man nor a

cripple--and he's neither, thank God."

"Don't you be so sure o' your walkin' powers," cried Frank's

wife. "There's many a man gets no further than half-way, nor

can't to save his life, let him live for ever."

"Why, how do you know?" said Alfred.

"It's plain enough in th' looks o' some," retorted Lizzie,

his sister-in-law.

The youth stood with a faint, half-hearing smile on his face.

He was tense and abstracted. These things, or anything, scarcely

touched him.

Anna came down, in her day dress, very elusive. She kissed

everybody, men and women, Will Brangwen shook hands with

everybody, kissed his mother, who began to cry, and the whole

party went surging out to the cab.

The young couple were shut up, last injunctions shouted at

them.

"Drive on," shouted Tom Brangwen.

The cab rolled off. They saw the light diminish under the ash

trees. Then the whole party, quietened, went indoors.




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