He had his own reasons for remembering the wood path . Leo had not been the first Grant to go courting to Wish-ton-wish . When he started , the moon was rising round and red and hazy in an eastern hill-gap . The autumn air was mild and spicy . Long shadows stretched across the fields on his right and silvery mosaics patterned the floor of the old beechwood lane . Selwyn walked slowly . He was thinking of Esme Graham or , rather , of the girl who had been Esme Graham , and wondering if he would see her at the wedding . It was probable , and he did not want to see her . In spite of ten years ' effort , he did not think he could yet look upon Tom St. Clair 's wife with the proper calm indifference . At the best , it would taint his own memory of her ; he would never again be able to think of her as Esme Graham but only as Esme St. Clair . The Grahams had come to Wish-ton-wish eleven years before . There was a big family of girls of whom the tall , brown-haired Esme was the oldest . There was one summer during which Selwyn Grant had haunted Wish-ton-wish , the merry comrade of the younger girls , the boyishly , silently devoted lover of Esme . Tom St. Clair had always been there too , in his right as second cousin , Selwyn had supposed . One day he found out that Tom and Esme had been engaged ever since she was sixteen ; one of her sisters told him . That had been all . He had gone away soon after , and some time later a letter from home made casual mention of Tom St. Clair 's marriage . He narrowly missed being late for the wedding ceremony . The bridal party entered the parlour at Wish-ton-wish at the same moment as he slipped in by another door . Selwyn almost whistled with amazement at sight of the bride .
That Alice Graham , that tall , stately , blushing young woman , with her masses XXXXX dead-black hair , frosted over by the film of wedding veil !
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