anybody else would have thought of it. Perhaps it's more than a hundred
years since the last Indian wedding was held in that little deserted
chapel; but it's all right, kept in good order, just as a relic beside
the big new church. I think"--turning to the clergyman--"that it will
be perfectly delightful and original to have you marry me there, at
high noon, on the last day of June."
Well, of course, there was a good deal of astonishment and confusion
and reluctance when this extraordinary plan came out. No one had
imagined precisely this turn in Ethel's originality. Her mother was in
a state of paralyzed dismay at an idea so wildly unconventional; the
twins and her brothers and Miss Nancy Bangs bubbled over with practical
difficulties and protests; Father Bellingham Jenks was doubtful and
embarrassed. "Would it be possible--decorous--regular? The Roman
Branch, you know, has not yet openly acknowledged the Anglican position
in The Church. Might not objections arise--misunderstanding--refusal of
permission to use the chapel? I should hesitate very much, you know!"
But Ethel carried things through with her usual sweet, sparkling
high-handedness; and Chichester supported her with irresistible
determination, as if he had decided on exactly this thing years ago.
"Certainly," he said, "splendid idea--entirely novel--quite
correct--nothing could be better. Telegraph for one wing of the
Tadousac Hotel, with drawing-rooms and private dining-room. Send down
plenty of flowers and cakes and wines and whatever we need from here by
boat on the twenty-ninth. Get a letter of introduction from my friend
Paradol, the Minister of Fisheries and Lighthouses, to the archbishop
here--letter from him to the cure at Tadousac--keys of the
chapel--permission to make drawings and photographs of the interior
every morning of next week. I've been at Tadousac almost every summer
for the last five or six years, on the way to my salmon-fishing at the
Ste. Marjorie Club. It's all perfectly easy and it shall be done."
The difficulties seemed to vanish before his masterful air, and
everybody fell into line with sudden enthusiasm. Ethel smiled
discreetly and moved along her pathway of inflexible originality with
gentle triumph. The voyage down the river was delightful. The
arrangements at the big white wooden hotel on the curving bay were
rather primitive but quite comfortable; and three of the five days
which were to pass before the ringing of th
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