“Well, Bess—shall you go?” and he briefly announced the contents of the letter to the others.
“James—please send a wire to Mr. Davis that my plans will remain unchanged!” and she swept haughtily from the room.
“Gee—I admire her spunk, don’t you, Bee?” said James to the girl, as she hastened after her friend.
One day, as Bess and Berenice were wandering rather aimlessly among the pines quite near the house, Berenice exclaimed: “Oh! what a novelty ’twould be to have the ceremony out-of-doors! Here—right here!”
Her suggestion had reference to a large, flat rock completely overrun with beautiful, creepy kinnikinick, and resting at the base of a large tamarack tree. The small firs made a dark-green background, and entwined about them hung clusters of clematis, now white with downy, smoky balls.
“Yes—it would be pretty. All right, we shall! Just think, dear, only one day more, and then—”
“Oh, my! Somehow the time has seemed too short,” remarked Bess, and her friend could not fail to hear the sadness which crept into her voice.
Dave Davis had written that his business had detained him much longer than he had thought, but that he should be able to reach HW ranch on the fourteenth. However, on the morrow came a messenger with a letter from Mr. Davis, stating that he could not possibly reach the ranch before the day of the wedding, and that nothing, nothing on earth should prevent his being there in ample time.
“I shall explain in detail as soon as I see you, dear,” the message ran, “and cannot express how the enforced delay has hurt me.”