But they were not left long alone, for Minnie Shelton soon came tripping in with an exquisite point lace shawl hanging over her arm.
“Everybody is on the qui vive,” she said, breathlessly, “and we must not keep them waiting. Sit down, Miss Richards, on this divan, and let me pin this shawl on your head; it will make a lovely bridal vail. There, Lord Carrol, isn’t she charming?” she asked, after she had dextrously arranged it in graceful folds. “Doesn’t she look like a real bride?”
“I think your efforts have been eminently successful to make her appear like one,” he answered, smiling; and certainly Josephine was as lovely as it was possible for any one to be.
“I only hope, my lord, that when you do get married you’ll find somebody half as beautiful,” retorted the saucy elf. “There, you’ll do; now go, for they are all waiting, and the parson is ready to pronounce the banns.”
Lord Carrol felt very uneasy, but he offered his arm to Josephine again, and her hand fell upon it, white and soft as a snow-flake.
They passed out into the great ball-room and paused under the green arch, while murmurs of surprise and admiration greeted them from every side, for the addition of the lace shawl to Josephine’s already charming toilet had greatly enhanced her appearance.
Two or three young girls, led by Minnie Shelton, advanced and took their station by her side to act as bride-maids, and then Lord Henderson, clad in a long white robe improvised for the occasion, came forward and read the marriage service.
When the ring was called for, the gay girl who had planned all this reached behind the bride and tucked one into Lord Carrol’s hand.
He was strangely impressed, a feeling of awe, a chill, creeping over him as he felt it and thought of its significance. But he took it and put it on the finger of the mock bride, repeating, “with this ring I wed thee, and all my goods endow thee,” feeling as if he were going through a mockery almost too horrible to endure.
Josephine, too, trembled visibly, while the hand that he held was as cold as ice.