“Not I,” laughed Betty. “I’m thankful that Donald escaped the submarines, but it will be some years yet before we can get married. Both of us have to finish college and then Donald will have to get a start in business. Philip and Dick and Cathalina’s lover are lucky.”
“When did you say the wedding is to be?” asked Helen.
“In June, but the date is not fixed yet. She wants us all for bridesmaids and will fix the time after school is out, is writing to all the girls to find out if they can come.”
“Whom do you mean by all the girls? She couldn’t have the whole Psyche Club, could she?”
“No; she said that she was afraid Pauline, Juliet and Virgie could not even get to the wedding from things they have written about their plans, you know. She wants me for maid of honor,—think of it—her mother wants to have a big wedding and Cathalina doesn’t mind. Then she wants to have you three girls, of course, with Lilian and Isabel, and then that cousin of hers that is about her age, Nan Van Ness. And Charlotte Van Ness is to be flower girl. She says that is as far as she has planned. No, for there is one thing more,—she wants us to have delicate colors, different colors, and be the ‘butterfly girls’ of the Psyche Club.”
“Oh, that will be lovely. Cathalina will make a beautiful bride. Did she say how she is going to be dressed or anything more about how she wanted the bridesmaids’ dresses to be?”
“No, only that she hadn’t thought it out yet, and she wants us to be planning to come as soon as school is out in June for a real house-party again.”
“A house-party, and while they are getting ready for a wedding?” asked Helen in surprise.
“Cathalina wrote—well, I’ll read it to you: ‘I have not thought out the details yet. It is all so new and wonderful to be engaged to a man who,’—maybe I’d better leave out that—anyway she says that it’s love’s young dream as yet. ‘But Mother and I will sit down some day and put it all on paper, just what we want, and then the housekeeper and the decorator and the caterer will carry it all out. I’m going to let Mother plan my clothes. We’ll do some shopping together right away, and perhaps Lilian and Mrs. North will go with us some time. Aunt Katharine will take an interest, too. So about all little Cathalina will have to do is to try on clothes and say whether she likes them or not. At first I did not like the thought of a big wedding, but Mother has just one girl to be married, and believes in being married in church, and then we have so many friends and such a family connection that there isn’t any other way.’”
“I see,” said Helen. “I suppose that Mrs. Van Buskirk is used to planning for big entertainments.”