y's. She hem-stitched, she cat-stitched, she feather-stitched, she
lace-stitched, she tucked and frilled and embroidered, and generally
worked her fingers off; while the bride vainly protested that all this
finery was quite unnecessary, and that simple hems and a little Hamburg
edging would answer just as well. Clover merely repeated the words,
"Hamburg edging!" with an accent of scorn, and went straight on in her
elected way.

As each article received its last touch, and came from the laundry white
and immaculate, it was folded to perfection, tied with a narrow blue or
pale rose-colored ribbon, and laid aside in a sacred receptacle known as
"The Wedding Bureau." The handkerchiefs, grouped in dozens, were strewn
with dried violets and rose-leaves to make them sweet. Lavender-bags and
sachets of orris lay among the linen; and perfumes as of Araby were
discernible whenever a drawer in the bureau was pulled out.

So the winter passed, and now spring was come; and the two girls on the
doorsteps were talking about the wedding, which seemed very near now.

"Tell me just what sort of an affair you want it to be," said Clover.

"It seems more your wedding than mine, you have worked so hard for it,"
replied Katy. "You might give your ideas first."

"My ideas are not very distinct. It's only lately that I have begun to
think about it at all, there has been so much to do. I'd like to have you
have a beautiful dress and a great many wedding-presents and everything as
pretty as can be, but not so many bridesmaids as Cecy, because there is
always such a fuss in getting them nicely up the aisle in church and out
again,--that is as far as I've got. But so long as you are pleased, and it
goes off well, I don't care exactly how it is managed."

"Then, since you are in such an accommodating frame of mind, it seems a
good time to break my views to you. Don't be shocked, Clovy; but, do you
know, I don't want to be married in church at all, or to have any
bridesmaids, or anything arranged for beforehand particularly. I should
like things to be simple, and to just _happen_."

"But, Katy, you can't do it like that. It will all get into a snarl if
there is no planning beforehand or rehearsals; it would be confused and
horrid."

"I don't see why it would be confused if there were nothing to confuse.
Please not be vexed; but I always have hated the ordinary kind of wedding,
with its fuss and worry and so much of everything, and just like a