“I know, but not quite in the same fashion. You will not understand, dear. But never mind,” sighing, “I will send him away.”
“No, you will not, dear, although we all think you both very silly, and Gus says Bayard is ‘spoony,’ in his emphatic slang.”
“I don’t care what Gus says, but only for your wishes, mamma, love. I only care for pleasing you and Bayard. I am very silly, perhaps, as you say, for, mamma,” she lifted the large brown eyes wistfully, “it all seems to me like I was losing him, instead of gaining him forever. Is it not strange that I cling to him to-day as if he were going on a long journey from me to-morrow? Did you feel that way on your marriage eve?”
“No, dear, but my imagination was not so vivid as yours. Calm yourself and go to your lover. I will make excuses for you to the girls.”
So the selfish, absorbed lovers sat for hours on the particular garden seat which by tacit consent had come to be appropriated to them alone, and when twilight fell and the odor of the roses and orange flowers grew strong and spicy around them, they parted with reluctance to prepare for the marriage ceremony.
When Betty had delivered her message and discreetly turned her head, he took his lovely betrothed in his arms and kissed her with solemn tenderness.
“Good-by, sweetheart. In an hour you will be my bride,” he whispered, and then she went away with Betty, a slim, white figure, with loose, bright hair, on which his grave blue eyes lingered with dreamy tenderness.
She went on with a heart full of happiness that was disturbed by an uneasy sense of ill. She thought it was the weight of her secret resting on her heart, and sighed to herself:
“Oh, I wish I had been brave enough to confess all! But I could not, I could not, and I pray Heaven he may never know the truth now.”
The grand drawing-room was thronged with guests when she came down, one hour later, “in gloss of satin and glimmer of pearls,” an ideally lovely bride, and met her splendid lover, who drew her hand through his arm and led her before the waiting minister.