"But they won't be furnished," argued Amarilly.
"Oh, yes, they will," assured Colette. "It's etiquette—" she paused to note Amarilly writing the word down in a little book she carried—"for people to send their presents before they come, and you can settle as fast as they come in."
The wedding gifts all arrived the day before the wedding. The base- burner, though not needed for some months, was set up, because the Boarder said he would not feel at home until he could put his feet on his own hearth. John Meredith sent an oaken library table and an easy-chair. Derry's offering was in the shape of a beautiful picture and a vase for the table.
The best man, who fortunately had appealed to Amarilly for guidance, gave a couch. The Jenkins family, assessed in proportion to their respective incomes, provided a bedroom set. Lily Rose's landlady sent a willow rocker; the girl friends at the factory a gilt clock; the railroad hands, six silver spoons and an equal number of forks. Lily Rose's Sunday-school teacher presented a lamp. A heterogeneous assortment of articles came from the neighbors.
These presents were all arranged in the new rooms by Lily Rose, and the elegance of the new apartment was overwhelming in effect to the household.
"It looks most too fine to feel to hum in," gasped the Boarder. "It makes me feel strange!"
"It won't look strange to you," assured the bride-elect, looking shyly into his adoring eyes, "when you come home and find me sitting here in my blue dress waiting for you, will it?"
"No!" agreed the Boarder with a quick intake of breath, "'Twill be home and heaven, Lily Rose."
CHAPTER XXIII
Shyly and perversely Lily Rose had postponed the trying on of her borrowed wedding waist until the day preceding the great event.