She gazed an instant, then, looking up at him with an arch smile and a charming blush, “I think the gentleman is extremely handsome,” she said.
“I was thinking of the lady,” he laughed, drawing her closer to his side and bending to kiss the ruby lips. “You make a bonny bride, my darling; even bonnier than you did when first you gave me the right to call you mine. Look again, and tell me if you are not entirely satisfied with your own appearance in bridal array?”
She obeyed, again gazing intently for a moment, smiling and blushing with gratification, for it was a very lovely face and figure she saw reflected in the mirror.
“Wouldn’t you have liked to have me dressed just so when we were married, dear Ned?” she asked, with another glance up into his face.
“Yes, sweet one, if it might have been. And yet it could hardly have made us happier at the present time than we are now.”
“No; and yet I should have preferred a happier bridal than we had. I can never think of it without remembering the bitter sorrow that came to me at the same time. You were my only helper and comforter then, dear, dear Ned! and oh, how kind you were! But you know you were almost a stranger, and I couldn’t love and trust you as I have learned to do in these years that we have lived together. I was grateful to you then (though not half so grateful as I should have been), but half afraid of you too. But I don’t fear you now; no, not a bit,” she concluded with a light and happy laugh.
“I hope not, indeed,” he said, “‘perfect love casteth out fear.’ How have you enjoyed yourself to-night?”
“Very much indeed. I think we gave mamma a pleasant surprise with our tableaux. She hasn’t a particle of prying curiosity about her, and we were quite successful in keeping our intentions in regard to them a secret from her.”
“Yes, I know; and she told me it was a great treat to her to see her three daughters in bridal attire; that in her eyes they all looked very lovely, very bride-like.”
“It’s so nice in her to include me with the others; she is and always has been a real mother to me ever since the day you brought me to Ion. Well, I suppose I must doff my finery, for it is growing late.”