andered more than once to
the younger two of the bridesmaids proper--those two irreconcilables
joined for the first time in a show of sisterhood and likeness--and
whom he examined and compared as so often before, with the same
inability to decide which.

He paid little or no attention to either. He might have been a
gray-headed old sage for the marvelous reticence of his demeanor,
devoting himself to his duties and the dowagers with a persistency
of good-breeding, to say the least of it, admirable. At the
breakfast-table he was naturally separated from both these fair
disturbers of his lordly peace, Leam having been told off to Alick,
and Adelaide handed over to Frank's fraternal care, with Mrs. Frank,
who claimed more than a fee-simple in her husband, watching them
jealously and interrupting them often.

That wind which never blows so ill that it brings no good to any one
had brought joy to Alick in this apportionment of partners, if the
sadness of boredom to poor Leam. The natural excitement of a wedding,
which stirs the coldest, had touched even the chastened pulses of the
pale, gaunt curate, and he caught himself more than once wondering if
he could ever win the young queen of his boyish fancy to return
the deep love of his manhood--love which was so true, so strong, so
illimitable, it seemed as if it must by the very nature of things
compel its answer.

That answer was evidently not in the course of preparation to-day, for
Leam had never been more laconic or more candidly disdainful than she
was now; and what sweetness the pomegranate flower might hold in its
heart was certainly not shaken abroad on the surrounding world.
She answered when she was spoken to, because even Leam felt the
constraining influences of society, but her eyes, like her manner,
said plainly enough, "You tire me: you are stupid."

Not that either her eyes or her manner repelled her uncomfortable
adorer. Alick was used to her disdain, and even liked it as her way,
as he would have liked anything else that had been her way. He was
content to be her footstool if it was her pleasure to put her foot
on him, and he would have knotted any thong of any lash that she had
chosen to use. Whatever gave her pleasure rejoiced him, and he had no
desire for himself that might be against her wishes. Nevertheless,
he yearned at times, when self would dominate obedience, that those
wishes of hers should coincide with his desires, and that before the
end ca