e frown of
an epicure. "A tiny wee bit more Athabasca," he added, and they all
laughed and told him that Athabasca was a lake, of course. Of course he
meant tobasco, Ina said. Their entertainment and their talk was of this
sort, for an hour.

"Well, now," said Dwight Herbert when it was finished, "somebody dance
on the table."

"Dwightie!"

"Got to amuse ourselves somehow. Come, liven up. They'll begin to read
the funeral service over us."

"Why not say the wedding service?" asked Ninian.

In the mention of wedlock there was always something stimulating to
Dwight, something of overwhelming humour. He shouted a derisive
endorsement of this proposal.

"I shouldn't object," said Ninian. "Should you, Miss Lulu?"

Lulu now burned the slow red of her torture. They were all looking at
her. She made an anguished effort to defend herself.

"I don't know it," she said, "so I can't say it."

Ninian leaned toward her.

"I, Ninian, take thee, Lulu, to be my wedded wife," he pronounced.
"That's the way it goes!"

"Lulu daren't say it!" cried Dwight. He laughed so loudly that those at
the near tables turned. And, from the fastness of her wifehood and
motherhood, Ina laughed. Really, it was ridiculous to think of Lulu that
way....

Ninian laughed too. "Course she don't dare say it," he challenged.

From within Lulu, that strange Lulu, that other Lulu who sometimes
fought her battles, suddenly spoke out:

"I, Lulu, take thee, Ninian, to be my wedded husband."

"You will?" Ninian cried.

"I will," she said, laughing tremulously, to prove that she too could
join in, could be as merry as the rest.

"And I will. There, by Jove, now have we entertained you, or haven't
we?" Ninian laughed and pounded his soft fist on the table.

"Oh, say, honestly!" Ina was shocked. "I don't think you ought to--holy
things----what's the _matter_, Dwightie?"

Dwight Herbert Deacon's eyes were staring and his face was scarlet.

"Say, by George," he said, "a civil wedding is binding in this state."

"A civil wedding? Oh, well--" Ninian dismissed it.

"But I," said Dwight, "happen to be a magistrate."

They looked at one another foolishly. Dwight sprang up with the
indeterminate idea of inquiring something of some one, circled about and
returned. Ina had taken his chair and sat clasping Lulu's hand. Ninian
continued to laugh.

"I never saw one done so offhand," said Dwight. "But what you've said is
all you have to say according to