And now they had reached the solemn part of the service where Dr. Ordway asked if there was anyone present who had any objection to the wedding. One of the gentlemen coughed rather loudly, but no one said anything and soon the ceremony was over and everyone was laughing and talking and congratulating the happy pair.
Then for the first time Rollo had an opportunity to speak to Anabelle and you may be sure he lost no time in gaining her side. They were soon chatting merrily.
“Let’s eat,” said Rollo, for his father had instructed him that he must be sure to get his luncheon at the wedding.
When they had regaled themselves with the lavish collation, they joined the grown-up company who were dancing to the soft strains of three saxophones and a bass drum.
“That was lovely,” said Rollo politely when the dance ended,—“but do you not think the party is getting a little rough?”
“So it is,” agreed Anabelle. “Let us sit on the stairs, where we can see without being seen.”
“Yuppy,” said Rollo, and soon they were comfortably seated just beyond the landing with Anabelle quite close to Rollo and her brown eyes looking up into his blue ones.
Now Rollo did not know it, but sitting on a stairway with a young lady is an almost certain way of bringing about a proposal. Why this is we do not know, but so it is, and so it has been since stairs were first invented.
All things seemed to conspire to bring to the surface a declaration of Rollo’s great love for Anabelle. The wedding had stirred him deeply, and Anabelle’s beauty, the dancing, and now this quiet corner with the sound of the saxophones softened by the distance.
His hands were very cold and his voice trembled slightly as he said, with more originality than one would have expected—“Anabelle, I have something to say to you.”