tucked away in bureau drawers. I
laughed outright, and asked her who was to see all that finery. She was
vexed and bit her lip, and I was sorry and voted myself a brute. From
that moment, I determined not to say a word about the clothes, except to
express unstinted admiration.

There was not only clothing, but blankets and quilts and bed linen,
though we were to live in her old home, which was already well supplied.
One would suppose that a large and sudden increase of family was
expected at once. These things annoyed me as senseless, and as absorbing
so much of my Bessie's attention that we didn't have half the blissful
times together that we had before our engagement was an acknowledged
thing. But I knew that it was the mother's doings. Bessie did not really
have any foolish care for dress, though always beautifully arrayed
without any apparent effort; but she supposed it was the proper thing,
and submitted to her mother.

But there was one thing I set my heart on. I wanted a quiet wedding,
without display or pretence. It did seem to me that this was a private
occasion in which the wishes of the persons chiefly concerned should be
consulted. It was their business and should be conducted in their own
way. Bessie sympathized with me, and wanted of all things to go to
church quietly and privately, and then, after a leave-taking with a few
intimate friends at home, start right off on our proposed trip to the
White Mountains. But no; we were inexperienced, and the widow knew what
the occasion demanded much better than we did. She was a little grand in
her ideas, and felt the importance of keeping on good terms with
society. I was disposed to apply profane epithets to society, and to
insist that this marriage was mine and Bessie's, and nobody's else. But
what was the use? There would be unpleasant feelings, and the mamma must
be conciliated, and so I yielded after a warm but altogether
affectionate little controversy with Bessie.

Every time I came to the house now, I was informed of some new feature
which Mrs. P. had decided upon as indispensable to the gorgeousness of
the occasion.

"Have you ordered your dress suit yet?" she asked one evening.

"Dress suit? Oh yes. I had almost forgotten that."

"And, by the way, those cards? I think you had better send them out:
you write such a good, legible hand."

"Y-e-s, oh yes. With pleasure."

"When you go to the city to-morrow, I wish you would drop in at Draper's
and g