A knock at the door interrupted just then, and Uncle William's cheery face appeared. "It is so late I must not stop," he said; "but I ran away from a political meeting to wish my little girl many happy returns."
"There is to be another wedding in the family," said Mrs. Howard, entering the library one day with some hyacinths in her hand.
"Do you mean it really? I did not know there was anybody to get married but Cousin Helen," Bess exclaimed.
Carl looked up from a weighty volume he was consulting. "That is easy to guess; it is Joanna, of course."
"Is it Jo, Auntie?"
"Yes, she confided it to me a few minutes ago. It will be in June, and Patrick Loughlin is the happy man."
"I should think she would rather live with us, but there is no accounting for taste," said Bess, as she went to find Louise and tell the news.
"I can't imagine what ails Ikey; he is as cross as a bear," remarked Carl, closing his book with a bang.
"Perhaps he is worrying over examinations," Aunt Zélie suggested.