eful resignation, and she spared no efforts in
preparing for the grand wedding, that it might do honor to the proud
master of Ellsworth. A magnificent banquet was ready, and the floral
decorations of the mansion were superb. It was to be a morning wedding,
followed by a summer _fete_ on a magnificent scale, and that evening the
bride and groom would leave for a Northern tour, and thence to Europe.

Sweet, shy Dainty, so like a lovely, modest violet, gazed in wonder at
all the preparations for the magnificent wedding, scarcely able to
realize that it was to do honor to her, the simple girl with whom her
rich and noble lover had seen fit to choose to share his heart, and
name, and wealth. She said to herself that she was surely the happiest,
most fortunate girl in the whole world, and that her love story read
like some romantic fairy tale, with Lovelace Ellsworth as the grand
Prince Charming.

Oh, how proud and happy Mamma Chase was, too, in her daughter's good
fortune! The years seemed to fall from her like a cast-off garment, and
on her gentle face, Mrs. Ellsworth, who had wondered so where Dainty got
her radiant beauty, read the traces of what had once been rare
loveliness before time and sorrow had faded her flower-like bloom. Mrs.
Ellsworth could not help being courteous to the gentle lady who was her
half-brother's lonely widow, so that last day passed away busily and
happily, crowded with excitement, and that night the guest-chambers of
Ellsworth were full to overflowing with visitors who had been bidden
from a distance to their kinsman's wedding.

Until far into the moonlit summer night the halls and parlors of
Ellsworth echoed with music and laughter, for the gay young people
crowded together could scarcely be persuaded to retire even for "a
beauty sleep" to enhance their charms to-morrow.

But at length all went to their rooms, and the weary servants closed the
great house, darkened the lights, and everything sank into silence,
broken only now and then by the call of a night bird in the shrubbery,
or the whistle of a far-away locomotive. The full moon sailed high in
the deep blue heaven, brooding over the sleeping world in its mystery,
its beauty, its joy and sorrow.

Love and Dainty had gone along the corridors hand in hand like happy
children, pausing to say good-night before their own doors.

"Mamma will share my room to-night--we have so much to say to each other
this last night," Dainty said to her lo