"We thought at first we would not tell for a few days, but keep our secret; but I have been persuading Elise that there is no use in waiting for wedding finery. She is beautiful enough in the clothes she has. And we have determined to go to Rome, where Mrs. Huntington now is, and be married immediately."
"That will be splendid," declared Mrs. Brown, "but we are sorry not to have it here, so we can all be present. I hate to give up my girl, but, of course, she must go straight to her mother."
"The only thing I don't like about it is for me, of all people, to be the one to interrupt Elise's studies at the art school, after all my talk about its being so important for her to get in a winter of hard, continuous work! I am afraid Mrs. Huntington will think I am not very consistent," laughed the happy fiancé.
Molly was wondering, too, what Mrs. Huntington would think of the match. She hoped Mr. Kinsella had told Elise of his former attachment to her mother, and that Elise would be prepared for the more than probable taunts from that far from considerate lady. Mr. Kinsella was well aware of the disposition of his prospective mother-in-law, and had prepared Elise by divulging to her the fact that he had at one time been engaged to her mother; but he spared her the knowledge of her perfidy. Mrs. Huntington had already told her daughter of what she designated a conquest of Tom Kinsella, as she was ever inclined to boast of the number of scalps of former suitors and to wear them as ornaments.
Mrs. Huntington proved to be very much pleased with the alliance. She had tried to inform herself of Mr. Kinsella's affairs and had been delighted to learn that he was really rich. She was too keen an observer not to know that Mr. Kinsella's interest in Elise was not altogether because of her father, nor yet her artistic talent. She had predicted to herself from the first that Tom Kinsella was falling in love with her daughter, and felt that her wisest course was to take herself off and not interfere in any way.
Elise, accompanied by her adoring lover and Pierce (Pierce rather dazed by the rapidity of the proceedings), and chaperoned by a lady produced by the ever resourceful Marquis d'Ochtè, made her journey to Rome. She found her mother in a most gracious humor and not even inclined to object to the marriage being hurried. Elise had rather feared she would obstruct their plans with a plea for wedding clothes, but her mother knew very well when it was wise to acquiesce. She gave in very gracefully and actually consented to Elise's being married in a dress that was not absolutely new nor of the latest cut.
She felt repaid for her amiability when Mr. Kinsella informed her that his wife intended, with his entire approval, to make over the bulk of her fortune to her mother on her twenty-fifth birthday.
"I have enough for all of us, but I know you will be happier if you have an independent fortune," said the happy bridegroom. "I am so grateful to you for letting me have Elise that I wish I could do something to show my appreciation."
"All I can say is that Elise is a very fortunate girl," said Mrs. Huntington; and there was a glitter in her eye that looked hard but it was really an unaccustomed tear trying to form itself.
And so Elise and Mr. Kinsella went off on their honeymoon. We will not even try to find out where they went, but be glad to know that they found each other more and more delightful and congenial as time passed. Mr. Kinsella gave the impression more than ever of being a prematurely gray young man as happiness smoothed out the few lines in his face. Elise lost altogether the hard, bitter expression that had occasionally marred her beauty, and quickly blossomed into the sweet, lovely woman that Mother Nature had planned her to be but that her own mother had blindly and selfishly tried to nip in the bud.