But one might as well have tried to hail
the dead, so I took the 'bus back.
"They might have guessed what had happened," he added, "by the
shifting of the cart, if they'd had any sense. I'm not a light-
weight."
He complained of soreness, and said he would go home. I suggested
a cab, but he replied that he would rather walk.
I met McQuae in the evening at the St. James's Theatre. It was a
first night, and he was taking sketches for The Graphic. The
moment he saw me he made his way across to me.
"The very man I wanted to see," he said. "Did I take Hallyard with
me in the cart to Richmond this afternoon?"
"You did," I replied.
"So Leena says," he answered, greatly bewildered, "but I'll swear
he wasn't there when we got to the Queen's Hotel."
"It's all right," I said, "you dropped him at Putney."
"Dropped him at Putney!" he repeated. "I've no recollection of
doing so."
"He has," I answered. "You ask him about it. He's full of it."
Everybody said he never would get married; that it was absurd to
suppose he ever would remember the day, the church, and the girl,
all in one morning; that if he did get as far as the altar he would
forget what he had come for, and would give the bride away to his
own best man.
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