eople might feel the same; and thirty--thirty
was comparatively young!

The next day the General was taken in state to call upon Nan Vanburgh,
who had heard from Betty which way the wind was blowing, but had, of
course, been obliged to preserve an unconscious demeanour until the
engagement was a _fait accompli_.

"Under Providence, madam, I am indebted to you for this happiness!"
cried the General, bowing over her hand in his courtly old-world
fashion; and Nan looked at him with what her friends called "the shiny
look" in her eyes, and said, in the honest, big-girl fashion which she
never seemed to outgrow--

"And I am so happy that you are happy that I could just jump for joy!
It's a perfectly beautiful ending to my Saturday afternoons. I'm only a
little bit jealous that Mrs Trevor has had you to herself all this
time. Now it's my turn! What about the wedding? Where is it to take
place? Are you perhaps going to some relation's house?"

"No. Neither of us owns anyone very near and dear, so we prefer to stay
quietly in town."

"Then it must certainly be from here! You couldn't dream of being
married from the Home, Miss Beveridge! Come to me a few days before,
and I'll be your tire-woman, and help to get everything ready, and you
shall have a nice breakfast and invite all your friends."

But here the General interfered.

"No, no! No breakfast!" he cried. "None the less grateful to you,
madam, but fuss and speechifying don't come naturally to a man of my
age. I want to get my wife to myself as soon as possible, so we'll make
a bolt of it from the church door. Capital plan, though, to stay with
you for a bit before. What? You'd like that, Alice, wouldn't you?
Need someone to fix your fal-lals. What? Another debt of gratitude,
madam, which we will hope to repay, God willing, when we settle down in
our new home."

Miss Beveridge gratefully accepted Nan's invitation, but when she went a
step further and offered to assist in the choice of the wedding-dress,
it appeared that the bridegroom had decided views of his own on the
subject, and had already made his selection.

"She must wear blue! Says it ought to be grey at her age! Her age,
indeed, as if she were an elderly woman! She was wearing blue when I
saw her first, and she's going to be married in blue, or I'll know the
reason why! Blue dress, and a hat with blue feathers; and those Trevor
lassies shall be bridesmaids. Must have bridesmaids, ho