eight o'clock
The scoundrel brought a marriage certificate in his pocket when he came to stay at Ashbourne , and had the art to engage rooms at Southampton and sleep there a night _ en passant _ . He left a portmanteau and a hat-box there , and that constituted legal occupancy ; so , when he won Lady Mabel 's consent to an elopement -- which I believe he did not succeed in doing till the night before our intended wedding-day -- he had only to ride over to Southampton and give notice to the parson and clerk . The whole thing was done splendidly . Lady Mabel went out at eight o'clock , under the pretence of going to early church . Mallow was waiting for her with a fly , half a mile from Ashbourne . They drove to Southampton together , and were married at ten o'clock , in the old church of St. Michael . While the distracted Duchess and her women were hunting everywhere for the bride , and all the visitors at Ashbourne were arraying themselves in their wedding finery , and the village children were filling their baskets with flowers to strew upon the pathway of the happy pair , emblematical of the flowers which do _ not _ blossom in the highway of life , the lady was over the border with Jock o ' Hazeldean !