dle of it
Lady Medlincourt laughed softly to herself.

"I must tell you all something," she said. "You know Guy went to America
this year to see his cousin who is out ranching. He was so afraid that
people would think he had gone out to find an American heiress--you know
we're all disgracefully poor--that he stayed in New York, and came back,
under an assumed name. In fact, he was only in New York for two days,
for fear that some one should find him out. And to think, Guy," she
exclaimed, "that you are going to do the conventional thing after all!"

"My dear lady," Phineas Duge said, "the conventions in your wonderful
country are not things to be trifled with. Somehow or other they will
assert themselves. There is your nephew here trying to prove to the
world that he will have nothing to do with them, and yet it will be his
painful duty to receive as much of my hard-earned savings as my
daughter's dowry and Virginia's trousseau will leave to me. Never, until
I was inveigled into Doucet's this afternoon, did I really understand
the absolute recklessness of young women who are going to marry
Englishmen."

Virginia laughed softly.

"What there is in me of extravagance," she said, laying her hand for a
moment upon his arm, "I owe to you. Who else would have cabled to all my
people to come over here for such an unimportant function as
my wedding!"

Norris Vine caught his host's eye and raised his glass.

"May I be permitted," he asked, "to propose a toast--or rather several
toasts? I drink with you, sir," he added, with a slight bow, "to the
extinction of an ancient enmity! I have been something of a fanatic, I
fear, as all those must be who take to their hearts a righteous cause. I
drink to your charming niece, and to the fortunate young gentleman who
is to be her husband! And lastly, I drink to our great country!"

"To America, and the extinction of all enmities!" Phineas Duge cried,
holding his glass above his head.

"To America, and the sweetest of all her daughters!" Guy whispered in
Virginia's ears.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GOVERNORS***

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