When Dick and Audrey were wedded, they came out of the chapel amid the
singing of birds and the humming of insects, and the cheeping and
laughing of animals and children, who played together in the grass.
[Illustration: _Sir John began to polish his shield._]
And Sir John looked up from his shield, which shone less brightly than
their eyes, and said, “How happy you look!” So they explained why. And
he looked thoughtfully at Audrey, and said, “Who then will find you your
ball?” And she said she didn't mind about it any more. “Yet,” said Sir
John, “I must seek it still, for to find that ball of stars and flowers
at the end of the Murray River is still my dream, dear child, if it is
no longer yours.”
He rose to go, but Dick said wouldn't he stay to the wedding-party
first? And they made a green bowl of lettuce-leaves, and lined it with a
nest of cress, and set the radishes in a circle of scarlet and snow upon
the nest, and hard-boiled Emily's egg, and laid it in gold and silver
boats upon the lettuce-leaves. And the Hermit of Hardham fetched a
butterfly-net, and with it caught the globe of a great Spanish onion
that was dangling among many others from a cornice of the chapel, and
with a knife he divided it star-wise into eight points of the compass,
and he opened back the points till the onion lay unfolded like a
water-lily, and he set it in the centre of the salad within the crown of
radishes. As he did it he wept, for neither joy nor sorrow.
This beautiful salad was the wedding-party, and they all had some.
_Six O'Clock_
The sun was almost asleep and the moon very nearly awake when the feast
was ended, and Dick and Audrey said it was time to take the children
home. But Sir John said he must go his own way by himself. He kissed the
children and Audrey farewell, and, taking Dick's hand, said, “Do your
best to look after her without me.”
“I'll try, sir,” said Dick Dowett.
“I would stay and help you,” said Sir John-o'-Dreams, “but my shield is
bright enough at last, and I must find and follow the Murray River.”
He strode away in the evening light up the road to Pulborough where a
river runs under a bridge. And as they watched his glittering shield out
of sight, Christie murmured to Barbie, “But we found and followed the
Murray River.” And Barbie whispered, “Yes, that's the Arun over there.
He's going the wrong way.” And Sylvia smiled her little screwed-up
smile, and Wilf was fast asleep, and nobody else heard.