Together

ding now moved and talked with evident relief, eac

ride's mother, intent upon escaping with the Colonel by the side door and rejoining the bridal party at the house before the guests arrived on foot, scarcely heeded the amiable Senator's remarks. This affair of her daughter's marriage was, like most events, a matter of engrossing details. The Colonel, in his usual gregarious manner, had strayed among the guests, forgetful of his duties, listening with bent head to congratulatory remarks. She had to se

eningly. But play as exultantly as it might, it could not drown the babble of human voices. Every on

perfect

tty it a

a h

oked th

man, when is your turn coming? … Could hear every wor

the gathering, setting each one down at the proper social valuation, deciding, perhaps, in sum that they were a very "mixed lot," old friends and new, poor and

rne

rga

face still stirred by all that she had felt during the se

sive bride." And these two school friends moved on towards the door. Cornelia Pallanton, still surveying the scene, nodded and sai

ed air. The stolid man and his placid wife who had sat near the rear had already started for the Colonel's house, fo

ive town by the Colonel, as well as the stone library at the other end of the green. "Nice idea of Price," the Senator

The engine emitted little puffs of white smoke in the still noon, ready to carry its load back to the city after the breakfast. About th

d lady with knotty hands partly concealed in lace gloves. Her lined face had grown serious in age and contention with life. She clung stiffly to the arm of the railroad president,-proud, silent, and shy. She was his mother. From her one might conclude that the groom's people were less comfortably circumstanced than the bride's-that

Lane,-he will move up rapidly.

t as a reward for the hard years spent in keeping that boarding-house i

he eulogy flagged. "And he knows how

a touch of strangeness, with an enormous flowing tie of delicate pink, a velvet waistcoat, and broad-brimmed hat. The clothes and the full beard, the rippling chestnut hair and pointed mustache, sh

k after a look around-not the place for me!" He laughed and waved his cane towards th

the girl asked, a flash in her blue eye

am getting ready, you know," V

man, his face red with rapid walking. He touched his long, well

show-but got here in time f

whose color deepened and eyes turne

or, isn't it?" she said

did not speak, she added

Vickers Price

ed felt, in a light, critical stare. Then Mr. Hollenby at once appropriated the young woman's at

*

university, both slim young men, wearing their clothes carelessly,-clearly not of the Hollenby manner,-had attached themselves here. Behind them was Nan Lawton, too boisterous even for the open air. At the head of the procession, now nearly topping the hill beneath the house, was that silent married couple, the heavy, sober man and the serene, large-eyed woman, who did not mingle with the others. He had pointed out to

ress," she said with a little smil

l husband asked. Her eyes answered

*

ooking up at the hospitable goal ahead,-that irregular, broad white house pour

the Farm," sneered Nan

, the new and the old," the Sen

s that way. Better to pull the old thing down and go at it af

a hundred years or more

field himself, before he

the chance," Mrs. Lawton said. "The present-day youn

"What a good, homey sort of place,-like our

stone library and church, and piece on rooms here and there to his own house. In spite of these additions demanded by comfort there was something in t

t knew that it was marrying off an only daughter." To her, too, the Farm had memories, and no new villa spread o

ch evidently held the servant quarters. Just beyond the tent a band was playing a loud march. There was to be dancing on the lawn after the breakfast, and in the evening on the

ry windows. The Colonel had worked it all out with that wonderful attention to detail that had built up his great hardware business. Upstairs in the front bedrooms the wedding presents had been arranged, and nicely ticketed with cards for the am

lk with these few friends to the little chapel, where the dull old village parson would say the necessary words. The marriage over, and a simple breakfast in the old house,-the scene of their love,-they were to ride off among the hills to her camp on Dog Mountain, alone. And thus quietly, without flourish, they would enter the new life. But as happens to all such pretty

speeches. Standing at the foot of the broad stairs, her veil thrown back, her fair face flushed with color and her lips parted in a smile, one arm about a thick bunch of roses, the bride made a bright spot of light in the dark hall. All those whirling thoughts, the depths to which her spirit had descended during the service, had fled; she was excited by this throng of smiling, joking people, by the sense of her role. She had the feeling of its being her day, and she was eager to drink every drop in the sparkling cup. A great kindness

ough she had confessed to John only the night before that the sprightly Senator was "horrid,-he has such a way of squeezing your hand, as if he would like to do more,"-to

ay little woman, with her muddy eyes, whose "affairs"-one after the other-were condoned "for her husband's sake." Perhaps Nannie felt what it might be to be as happy and proud as she wa

very handsome figure, and would get her due attention from her world. They had not cared very much for "Conny" at St. Mary's, though she was a handsome girl then and had what was called "a good mind." There was something coarse in the detail of this large figure, the plentiful reddish hair, the strong, straight nose,-all of which the girls of St. Mary's had interpreted

ght to be for you, don't you know?" And as Percy Woodyard bore her off-he had hovered near all the

on over Vickers's head, "and make up

kers. Isabelle had a twinge of sisterly jealousy at seeing her younger brother so persistently in the wake of the large, blond girl. Dear Vick, h

he St. Mary's set, and though Isabelle had known her at school only a year, she had felt curiosity and admiration for the Virginian. Her low, almost drawling voice, which refle

so, so glad you could

uch. I made mother

" she asked, as Mar

heathen, who prefer whiskey to religion. Mother's taking him

Washi

was waiting for her at the library door…. "Ah, my Eros!" Isabella exclaimed with delight, holding forth two

u remember Eugene? At the Springs that summer?" The husband, a tall, smooth-shaven, young

dn't I aid and

s if the simple words covered a multitude of facts a

you again. Torso, where we are exiled for the p

Eros, with her dreamy, passionate, romantic temperament, a girl whom girls adored and kissed and petted, divining in her the feminine spirit of themselves. Surely, she should be happy, Aline, the be

ying in a twi

nth most intimate girl friend Aline has married off

the bride's neck, drew her f

ed into the library, where there was much commotion about the punch-bowl, the bride wondered-were they happy? She

ence. 'We have seen you through this business, started you joyously on the common path. And now what will you make of it?' For the occasion they ignored, good naturedly, the stones along the road, the mistakes, the miserable failures that lined the path, assuming the bride's proper illusion of triumph and confidence…. Among the v

her marriage,-the woman's symbol of the Perfect, not merely Success (though with John they could not fail of worldly success), nor humdrum content-but, as Alice said, the real thing,-a state of

man with a Dr. Johnson head on massive shoulders. One fat hand leaned hea

ed with a windy sigh,

He had grown very heavy since then,-time which he had spent roving about in odd corners of the earth. As he stood there, his head bent mockingly before the two, Isabelle felt herself Qu

es it,

imping up and down this weary earth and observing-men an

tu

ergo a new and wonderful experience. You haven't the slightest conception of what it is. Y

outh, no matter what may be the age of the contracting parties and their previous experience, in this matter. But Love and Marriage are two dis

iously thumping his stick on the floor, and made straight f