Out sprang the watchers from within, to welcome their guests, and into the arms of Edward Sherman sprang Little Wolf. She had instantly recognized him, and a glad cry escaped her, as he caught her to his breast.
The Captain saw all at a glance, and he then knew whom Little Wolf had kissed, and who was kissing her. Light also seemed to have suddenly dawned on Tom's benighted vision.
Without ceremony or apology, Edward bore our heroine away to a retired spot in the grove surrounding the cottage. Their interview was not interrupted, until Tom, in the course of half an hour had the temerity to venture out, and suggest the propriety of Little Wolf's partaking of a cup of tea.
"Did we not manage it nicely?" said Antoinette Le Clare to Little Wolf when they were alone. "Mr. Sherman came out for a little recreation, and did not think of seeing you. We made him think that it was his sister we were expecting, and when he rushed to meet her and saw who it was you ought to have seen his face."
On the subject of lovemaking, which was witnessed by the trees in the grove at Fairy Knoll, we will be silent. But the double wedding which followed was public and grand, and took place at St. Paul, under Mrs. Tinknor's supervision.
Miss Marsden returned to New York as Mrs. Captain Green, and little Flora declared herself "wery, wery fond of her new mama."
Mr. and Mrs. Sherman accompanied them as far as the city of Pendleton, where Edward proposes to make his future home.
At parting Tom wickedly mentioned to Little Wolf that he was concerned for the prosperity of that much talked of orphan asylum. Whereupon the dignified Mrs. Sherman assured him that having proved himself so capable of preparing an asylum for the orphan in which they were mutually interested, she thought him better adapted to carry out her benevolent projects than she was, and consequently would leave the matter in his hands for the present.
Not long after their marriage Edward Sherman discovered in his wife's secretary a total abstinence pledge, to which was appended a long list of names. It was the same which Mr. Marsden had drawn up on shipboard, and "Alfred Marsden," headed the list.
Edward took it from its place, and he was in the act of signing his own name at the bottom, when a bright curly head came between him and the paper, and rosy lips whispered, "Thank you, Edward love, for this free will offering."