And thus, as Jane had once prophesied to Paul, the incredible had happened—the Other Winkler was found.
[CHAPTER XVII—AN HONOR TO THE FAMILY]
“And of course I shall lend you my pearl pin,” cried Lily, embracing Elise for the sixth time. “Oh, I am so delighted! And to think, you sly girl, that you’re going to be married four whole months before I am!”
“And I,” announced Dolly Webster, taking her turn at embracing the blushing and dimpling Elise, “I’ve brought you a pair of blue garters. Annie Lee made ’em, but I sewed on the little pink roses, so they’re from both of us. And mamma is going to give you the dearest set of tea cups—though that’s a secret. I never was so surprised at anything in my life!”
“And your fiancé is charming,” added Amelia, “so interesting. Now, do let me look at all these pretty things you are making.”
“Well, I want to hear more about all this,” said Annie Lee, sitting down, and taking off her rain-soaked hat. “Here, my dear, give me some of your sewing to do. You must be rushed to death.”
“I am rushed—but everyone has been helping. The house is simply upside down,” said Elise. “Just look at this room! I don’t know how we’re going to get everything straightened out for the wedding. Papa insists that we must have a big party here afterwards, but where in the world we’ll find room to move I don’t know.”
Indeed, since the events recorded in the last chapter, the gentle routine of the Lambert’s family life had been unhinged at its very foundations. Everyone knows that the prospect of a wedding has a thoroughly disturbing influence, and during the weeks of trousseau making, and festivity-planning, Mr. Lambert’s rules of law and order were freely and boldly disregarded.
The wedding date was set for early winter,—to this suggestion, Mr. Lambert had given a ready consent, being anxious to have his son-in-law firmly attached to the household and his duties as soon as possible, and the domestic machinery moving once again with its customary smoothness. At the same time the old merchant desired to have his daughter’s marriage do him credit. He discussed the preparations fussily; he made decisions and redecisions on the household articles and heirlooms which should go to his daughter on her marriage; he even had his opinions on the bride’s dress. One evening he called her down and presented her with an ancient silver chain, set with curious, embossed medallions, which had belonged to his own grandmother—“Now I have the ‘something old,’”—Elise said, as she showed it proudly to her friends—: another time, on his return from a trip to Allenboro, he brought her a pair of tiny blue silk slippers, so small that no woman of the modern generation could possibly have pressed her feet into them. Altogether, his satisfaction was so profound that at times he was positively kittenish, and teased the young lovers with elephantine playfulness. He no longer saw in his prospective son-in-law and distant relative those eccentricities that had annoyed him so excessively. He called Hyacinth, Polybius—a name, which in his opinion had classic dignity—and treated him with a solemn regard that disconcerted the young man even more than his former sarcasm.
Everyone was pleased. Letters of a most friendly and cousinly nature had been exchanged with the family of the bridegroom who did not hesitate to express very frankly their surprise and delight in that young man’s unlooked for good sense in choosing the bride he had, and in preparing to lay aside his artistic whimsies in favor of a solid and thriving business.