tcliff were spent in driving about the beautiful
country, playing tennis, rambling about the pretty woods, and doing an
endless number of delightful nothings, as people can sometimes do when
they fully make up their minds to put aside the cares of the world for a
time.

They soon came to an end, and then came Miss Howard's wedding day.

There has always seemed something inexpressibly sweet in Longfellow's
words in reference to the forming of new ties and establishing the new
home. In Miss Howard's case it was to be a home filled with all the
sweetest hopes that can come into a woman's life: hopes sanctified by love
and founded upon respect. Could they have a firmer foundation? The future
held great promise for her, although worldly-minded folk might say that
the step she was about to take was not marked off by a _golden_
mile-stone, nor the path she would follow be paved with a golden pavement.
She knew that quite well, and had wisely decided that a noble character
and a brilliant mind were excellent substitutes, however agreeable it may
be to have the former, and, also, that the former minus the latter are
fairy gold.

CHAPTER XXX

"O FORTUNATE, O HAPPY DAY"

"O fortunate, O happy day,
When a new household finds its place
Among the myriad homes of earth,
Like a new star just sprung to birth,
And rolled on its harmonious way
Into the boundless realms of space!"

As though all that was loveliest had united to do her honor, and make the
boundary-line between the old and the new life one to be long remembered
by all who stood beside her at it, the day set for Miss Howard's wedding
was all that Lowell has written about it. It was as "rare" and "perfect"
as dear Mother Nature could make it for one of her loveliest children.

The girls had dressed the church, until it seemed a very bower of bloom,
and at every turn Miss Howard would find the posies of which she was so
fond. The three colors, if white may be called a color, chosen for the
bridesmaids' dresses were used in the decorations, and altar, chancel,
transept and aisles were brilliant with daffodils, narcissuses and lilacs,
which filled the church with their perfume.

The wedding was to take place at four o'clock, and when that hour arrived
little space was left in the church for the tardy ones.

Nearly all the girls had returned for the ceremo