well,
Bee could not be hard on a fellow, and we will both do what we can for
poor Josephine. No doubt I should not have made her a good husband--no
doubt, no doubt! Poor child--poor, beautiful child." But as he said the
words under his breath, Captain Bertram felt his heart beat hard and
fast. "My God--I love her madly--I must not think of her at all," he
murmured. "I must not; I dare not!" He was uncomfortable, and even
depressed, after these musings; and he was determined to keep the door
of that chamber within him where Josephine dwelt more firmly locked than
ever in the future.

When all the people concerned are of one mind on a certain point it is
surprising how easily they can bring their wishes to bear fruit. It was
all important, both to Captain Bertram and his mother, that his marriage
should follow his engagement with the least possible delay.

Having decided to marry him, Beatrice would allow her lover to lead her
to the altar the first day he cared to do so. Mrs. Meadowsweet was, of
course, like wax in the hands of her daughter.

Accordingly, Beatrice would only be an engaged maiden for three short
weeks, and on the 10th of September, before Captain Bertram's leave
expired, Northbury was to make merry over the gayest wedding it had ever
been its lot to participate in.

Mr. Ingram, who was one of Beatrice's guardians, and from whose house
the wedding was to take place, had insisted on all his parishioners
being invited. Both rich and poor were to partake of the good things of
life at the Rectory on that auspicious day, and Mrs. Bertram, whether
she liked it or not, must sit down to her son's wedding-breakfast in the
presence of Mrs. Gorman Stanley, Mrs. Morris, Mrs. Butler, Miss Peters,
and the other despised Northbury folk.

"Your son is marrying into one of the Northbury families," the rector
had said, when the proud lady had frowned a little over this. "Beatrice
must and shall have her friends round her when she gives herself to
Bertram. Your son is making an excellent match from a money point of
view and from all other points of view, and if there is a bitter with
the sweet, he must learn to swallow it with a good grace."

When the rector had mentioned "from a money point of view" Mrs. Bertram
had forced herself to clear her brows, and smile amiably. After all,
beside this great and important question of money what were these small
worries but pinpricks.

The pin-prick, however, was capable of goi