Marie Belloc Lowndes

“ For one thing, Angus Stuart had been unwilling to take advantage of the strange position in which Lily found herself. But once Mr. Bowering and Hercules Popeau had overcome his scruples, Lily had been profoundly moved to see how ecstatically happy her lover had become. ”

“ To-day, incredible though the fact still seemed, was to be her wedding day!
It was Hercules Popeau who had worked the miracle—for it still seemed a miracle to the two most closely concerned. It was he who had persuaded the cautious English lawyer, Mr. Bowering, that if Lily Fairfield were to be saved from the terrible ordeal of giving evidence against her pseudo-aunt, she must become, before the trial of Countess Polda, Angus Stuart's wife—the chattel of her husband, compelled, that is, to follow him where he ordered her to go. ”

“ As was but fitting, the Frenchman was best man to his Scots friend, and to everybody's amazement he had appeared garbed in ancient dress clothes, with, on his breast, the Cross of the Legion of Honour and the Military Cross! ”