ng girl who sat behind her. They
immediately peered around her sumptuous folds with anxious eyes lest
they might lose sight of the bridal party; but the bridal party did
not come.

A passageway was left quite clear to the space between the windows on
the west side of the room, where it was whispered the bride and groom
were to stand, and the people all pressed back towards the walls; but
no one came. A little hum of wondering conversation rose and fell
again at fancied stirs of entrance. Folk hushed and nudged each other
a dozen times, and craned their necks, and the clock struck the
half-hour, and the bridal party had not come.

In a great chair near the clear space between the windows sat the
bridegroom's mother, with a large pearl brooch gleaming out of the
black satin folds on her bosom. Her face, between long lace lappets,
looked as clearly pallid and passively reflective as the pearls. Not
a muscle stirred about her calm mouth and the smooth triangle of
forehead between her curtain slants of gray hair. If she speculated
deeply within herself, and was agitated over the delay, not a
restless glance of her steadily mild eyes betrayed it.

People wondered a little that she should not be busied about the
bridal preparations, instead of waiting there like any other guest;
but it was said that Dorothy had refused absolutely to have any
helping hands but those of her old black slave woman about her. It
was known, too, that Dorothy had only once taken tea with Burr's
mother since the engagement, and everybody speculated as to how they
would get on together. Dorothy had, in truth, received the rigorously
courteous overtures of her future mother with the polite offishness
of a scared but well-trained child, and the proud elder woman had not
increased them.

"When she comes here to live I shall do my duty by her, but I shall
not force myself upon her," she told Burr. Burr's mother had not seen
any of the dainty bridal gewgaws, but that she kept to herself.
People glanced frequently at her with questioning eyes as the time
went on; but she sat there with the gleam of her personality as
unchanged in her face as the gleam of the pearls on her bosom.

"Catch her looking flustered!" one woman whispered to another. After
the clock struck nine a long breath seemed to be drawn simultaneously
by the company; it was quite audible. Then came a sharp hissing
whisper of wonder and consternation; then a hush, and all faces
turned to