A messenger who brought a great basket of orchids and white roses, entered.
Hidden among the flowers, Gerelda found a little note in Varrick's handwriting:
"I hope my darling rested well. Heaven has made the day beautiful because it is our marriage morn."
It was an odd notion of Gerelda's to steal away from their elegant city mansion and her dear five hundred friends, to have the ceremony performed quietly up at the Thousand Islands, with only a select few to witness it.
Great preparations had been made in the hotel for the approaching marriage. The spacious private parlors to be used were perfect fairy bowers of roses and green leaves.
Up to this very morning Miss Northrup's imported wedding-gown had not arrived. Mrs. Northrup and Hubert Varrick were wild with anxiety and impatience over the affair. Gerelda alone took the matter calmly.
"It will be here some time to-day," she averred. "The wedding will be delayed but a few hours, after all, and I don't know but that I prefer an evening wedding to a morning one, anyhow."
It was almost dark ere the long-looked-for bridal trousseau arrived. Varrick drew a great breath of relief.
He welcomed the shadows of night with the greatest joy. He never afterward remembered how he lived until the hour of eight rolled round.
He had not long to wait in the little anteroom where she was to join him. The few invited guests who were so fortunate as to receive invitations were all present.