第35页 / 共657页

"I was half-dragged up to the altar, and before I knew where I

was I found myself mumbling responses which were whispered in my

ear, and vouching for things of which I knew nothing, and

generally assisting in the secure tying up of Irene Adler,

spinster, to Godfrey Norton, bachelor. It was all done in an

instant, and there was the gentleman thanking me on the one side

and the lady on the other, while the clergyman beamed on me in

front. It was the most preposterous position in which I ever

found myself in my life, and it was the thought of it that

started me laughing just now. It seems that there had been some

informality about their license, that the clergyman absolutely

refused to marry them without a witness of some sort, and that my

lucky appearance saved the bridegroom from having to sally out

into the streets in search of a best man. The bride gave me a

sovereign, and I mean to wear it on my watch chain in memory of

the occasion."