"Couldn't you arrange the wedding before we leave?" asked Beth. "It would delight us so much to be present at the ceremony."
"I think we owe the young ladies that much, Thursday," said Hetty, after a brief hesitation.
"Nothing could please me better," he asserted eagerly.
So they canvassed the wedding, and Patsy proposed they transfer the paper to Thursday and Hetty—to become a weekly instead of a daily—in a week's time, and celebrate the wedding immediately after the second issue, so as to give the bridal couple a brief vacation before getting to work again. Neither of them wished to take a wedding trip, and Mr. Merrick promised to rush the work on the new building so they could move into their new rooms in the course of a few weeks.
CHAPTER XXIV
A CHEERFUL BLUNDER
"We would like to ask your advice about one thing, sir," said Thursday Smith to Mr. Merrick, a little later that same evening. "Would it be legal for me to marry under the name of Thursday Smith, or must I use my real name—Harold Melville?"
Uncle John could not answer this question, nor could the major or
Arthur. Hetty and her fiancÚ had both decided to cling to the name of
Thursday Smith thereafter, and they disliked to be married under any
other—especially the detestable one of Harold Melville.
"An act of legislature would render your new name legal, I believe," said Mr. Merrick; "but such an act could not be passed until after the date you have planned to be married."
"But if it was made legal afterward it wouldn't matter greatly," suggested the major.