ed the importance of the matter--"Cullinan's dead for it.
He's going to be a witness, and afterward he's going to blow us to
supper--just us two. How's that?"

"Oh," she exclaimed, "that's fine!"

The next morning Daisy told Mr. and Mrs. Linnevitch that she was to be
married as soon as the restaurant closed. But they had schooled
themselves by now to expect this event, and said very little.
Linnevitch, however, was very quiet all day. Every now and then an
expression little short of murderous came into his face, to be followed
by a vacant, dazed look, and this in turn by sudden uncontrollable
starts of horror. At these times he might have stood for "Judas
beginning to realize what he has done."

Barstow, carrying Daisy's parcel, went out first. He was always tactful.
Daisy flung herself into Mrs. Linnevitch's arms. The undemonstrative
woman shed tears and kissed her. Linnevitch could not speak. And when
Daisy had gone at last, the couple stood and looked at the floor between
them. So I have seen a father and mother stand and look into the coffin
of their only child.

If the reader's suspicions have been aroused, let me set them at rest.
The marriage was genuine. It was performed in good faith by a genuine
alderman. The groom and the great Mr. Cullinan even went so far as to
disport genuine and generous white boutonnieres. Daisy cried a little;
the words that she had to say seemed so wonderful to her, a new
revelation, as it were, of the kingdom and glory of love. But when she
was promising to cleave to Barstow in sickness and peril till death
parted them, her heart beat with a great, valiant fierceness. So the
heart of the female tiger beats in tenderness for her young.

Barstow was excited and nervous, as became a groom. Even the great Mr.
Cullinan shook a little under the paternal jocoseness with which he came
forward to kiss the bride.

There was a supper waiting in the parlor of the rooms which Barstow had
hired: cold meats, salad, fruit, and a bottle of champagne. While the
gentlemen divested themselves of their hats and overcoats, Daisy carried
her parcel into the bedroom and opened it on the bureau. Then she took
off her hat and tidied her hair. She hardly recognized the face that
looked out of the mirror. She had never, before that moment, realized
that she was beautiful, that she had something to give to the man she
loved that was worth giving. Her eyes fell upon her old doll, the
companion of so many ye