“Yes. You shall learn everything soon, Mary—only be patient and trust in me a little longer. Now, farewell for an hour or so. Tell Jane to have all things in readiness against my return.”
“We will obey you,” she replied; and without speaking to the rest, he left the house.
When Aunt Polly heard the object of his visit she was greatly excited. If it were dangerous for an individual to remain single in such perilous times, she thought, for her part, that one person was just as much to be considered as another.
She wasn’t so certain of her house being kept over her head, and if her visitors couldn’t feel safe without getting married, she certainly should be scared out of her seven senses. Just as if Butler wouldn’t have as much spite against any other single woman as Jane Derwent—indeed!
Sim, who had just come from the barn, where he had bountifully provided for General Washington, heard the latter part of this speech with some dismay, but recovered himself immediately, and signified that he was ready to stand up to the mark whenever Miss Carter spoke the word.
Directly there was such a rummaging in the old chest of drawers, upstairs, as hadn’t been known since they first held that setting out. Half a dozen old silk dresses were taken out and tried on; a new pair of morocco shoes were fitted over the fine homespun stockings, provided for this interesting occasion thirty years before, and, after a reasonable delay, the energetic spinster made her appearance clothed in a light green silk, with a waist three inches long under the arms, and a skirt gored like an umbrella cover. The dainty fashion with which she entered the room where Jane Derwent sat, in her soiled and dreary-looking white dress, would have made even the missionary smile, had he been there, heavy as his heart was.
“I calkerlate they won’t find us back’ards in getting ready, Jane,” she observed, seating herself with great dignity; “you don’t happen to know if Mr. White has gone upstairs—do ye?”
Here Sim appeared at the door, with his best homespun coat on, and a broad ruffle, plaited by Miss Polly’s own fingers, fluttering from his bosom like a fan.
Aunt Polly rewarded this prompt devotion with an approving nod, settled the skirt of her dress, and observed to Jane that the minister seemed to be a long time in coming.
Jane answered with a faint smile that deepened to a look of sorrowful delight as she saw Edward Clark and the missionary coming through the door-yard gate. Mrs. Derwent and Mary came in, and a brief ceremony united the couple whose wedding had been so fearfully disturbed the day before.