The wedding party went back to Holly Lodge, which was too cramped to entertain more than a small party. There was punch in the old Lowestoft punch-bowl, and, according to tradition, the bride’s cake was cut with the groom’s sword. Fortescue’s brothers, fine young fellows, were present, and also his father, who, Betty readily agreed, was, as Fortescue described him, “the finest old dad in the world.”
When the time came for the bride and bridegroom to leave for the steamboat landing, a handsome carriage and pair, one of the gifts of Fortescue’s father to Betty, drove up, and as the bridal pair passed out, Uncle Cesar and Kettle, standing on each side of the doorway, played on their fiddles the old air which the bands played in the London streets for Queen Victoria’s wedding procession, “Come, Haste to the Wedding.” The Colonel, in his feeble old baritone, sang:
“Oh, come at our bidding,
To this merry wedding,
Come see rural felicity.”
There was indeed felicity on the faces of all, especially on that of the Colonel, as the smiling bride gave him her last farewell.
When all was over, and the guests had departed, the Colonel went back into the little sitting-room. There was Betty’s harp and Betty’s little chair and Betty’s geraniums that she tended so diligently, but there was no Betty. The Colonel seated himself in his great chair, and for the first time turned it around so that he could see Rosehill. Yes, everything was just as it should be——
In the twilight a little distressed voice spoke at the Colonel’s shoulder, and Kettle, black and miserable, asked:
“Ole Marse, what we gwine do ’thout Miss Betty!”
“God only knows,” replied the Colonel.
The Colonel had been without Betty only for a couple of weeks when one morning, some days before the bridal pair were expected, Betty and Fortescue appeared on their way from the river-landing. Betty flew at the Colonel and kissed him all over his face, and shook hands rapturously with Uncle Cesar and Kettle, and hugged Aunt Tulip. The sight of her joyous face was enough to make the Colonel happy.