"My Dear Niece:—Knowing you had always a strong desire to travel and see something of the world, I know of no better time for you to travel than now, on your wedding tour.
"In the bank book you will see a sum deposited in your name, sufficient to take you and Penloe around the world in first-class style.
"Wishing you much joy, dear, with love to you both,
Your Aunt Helen."
Stella opened the bank book to see the amount deposited to her credit, and to her joy and surprise there were five figures in the amount. Such a handsome gift touched Stella very much. She realized then the genuineness of her aunt's interest in her material welfare and the love she bore her.
When Stella returned to the room where the company was she went to her aunt, and put her arms round her and kissed her affectionately, and said: "How good you have been to me." Her aunt looked at the beautiful girl with pride, and seemed delighted to see her so happy. She said: "Stella, dear, I have only you to love, and you deserve all I can do for you."
Mr. and Mrs. Wheelwright were very much gratified by the handsome gift Stella received from her aunt, and Penloe, whose face was always the picture of repose, had now an unusual bright smile as he saw Stella's delight. He went and sat beside Mrs. Marston, and entertained her with his brilliant conversation, much to that lady's pleasure, for she enjoyed receiving attention from Penloe.
In course of conversation with Mrs. Marston (while Stella was absent from the room), in a very becoming and graceful way, he paid a glowing tribute to Stella's nobility of character and her intrinsic worth, which pleased Mrs. Marston greatly. Stella's aunt could not think of sitting down to a very plain meal on such an occasion as her niece's marriage, neither did she wish to see her sister or Stella with flushed faces through being over a hot cook-stove. So she had her caterer come from Roseland, with everything necessary, and take charge of the wedding dinner. They all had a very sociable time at the table, the topics of conversation being general, such as Mrs. Marston would be interested in.
After dinner, Stella had a few words in private with her aunt before leaving for Roseland. The gist of the talk was that she, when speaking of them, was not to say, "'Mr. Penloe Lenair' or 'Mrs. Penloe Lenair,' or have inserted in the newspapers 'Penloe Lenair, Esq., and wife, are visiting you, but always speak of us as 'Penloe and Stella,' because we wish to live in the realization that we are all members of one family, and to say Mr. or Mrs. is cold, formal and distant; but in being called by our given names we come near to those who are talking to us, and they come near to and in touch with us."
After the minister and Mrs. Marston had left, Stella said to Penloe: "I may just as well begin to initiate you into the new order of things now as any other time, for you are my husband. So I am going to tell you that we are living in a new age, and instead of the wife obeying her husband the husband has to obey the wife."