"We must have the wedding in a month, or so; I won't wait a day longer, and so I told my mother. I have seen a charming little house just suitable for us, and——"
"You might have consulted me first, William, before you fixed the time."
"What for? Nonsense! will not one time do for you as well as another?"
Miss Arkell looked up at her cousin: he seemed to be talking strangely.
"But where is the necessity for hurrying on the wedding like this?" she asked. "Not to speak of other considerations, the preparations would take up more time."
"Not they," dissented Mr. William, who had been accustomed to have things very much his own way, and liked it. "I'm sure you need not raise a barrier on the score of preparation, Mildred. You won't want much beside a dress and bonnet, and my mother can see to yours as well as to Charlotte's. Is it orthodox for the bride and bridesmaid to be dressed alike?"
"Who was it fixed upon the bridesmaid?" asked Mildred. "Did you?"
"Charlotte herself. But no plans are decided on, for I said as little as I could to my mother. We can go into details another day."
"With regard to a bridesmaid, Mary Pembroke has always been promised——"
"Now, Mildred, I won't have any of those Pembroke girls playing a conspicuous part at my wedding," he interrupted. "What you and my mother can see in them, I can't think. Provided you have no objection, let it be as Charlotte says."