ty
of her proposal.

"The servants do very well at present."

"They don't look as you do," Lanse answered, gallantly. "I must have
something to look at."

"But I think I ought to go."

"You can dismiss that 'ought' from your mind, there are other 'oughts'
that come nearer. In fact, viewing the matter impartially, you should
never have consented in the beginning, Madge, to take charge of that
girl, without first consulting me." Lanse brought out this last touch
with much judicial gravity. "Fortunately your guardianship, such as it
is, will soon be over," he went on; "she will have a husband to see to
her. Apparently she needs one."

"That won't be for six months yet."

"Call it two; as I understand it, there's nothing but dogmatic custom
between them, and as Florida isn't the land of custom--"

"Yes, it is."

"Well, even grant that; the girl is, from all accounts, a rich specimen
of wilfulness--"

"Of naturalness."

"Oh, if they're guided by naturalness," said Lanse, "they won't even
wait two."

And it was not two, when early one morning, in old St. Michael's Church
in Charleston, with Sally Lowndes, excited and tearful, as
witness--their only one save an ancient little uncle of hers, who had
come in from his rice plantation to do them the favor of giving the
bride (whom he had never seen before) away, Edgarda Thorne and Lucian
Spenser were married.

The Rev. Batton Habersham, as he came robed in his surplice from the
vestry-room, could not help being conscious, even then and there, that
he had never seen so beautiful a girl as the one who now stood waiting
at the chancel-rail--not in the veil she had written about, or the
orange-blossoms from East Angels, but in an every-day white frock, and
garden hat covered with roses. The bridegroom was very handsome also.
But naturally the clergyman was not so much impressed by Lucian's good
points as by Garda's lovely ones. Sally Lowndes was impressed by Lucian,
she gazed at him as one gazes at a portrait; Lucian looked very
handsome, very manly, and very much in love--a happy combination, Sally
thought. And then, with fresh sweet tears welling in her eyes, she knelt
down for the benediction (though it was not given to her), and thought
of "Roger," and the day when she should see him again in paradise.

The Rev. Batton Habersham, who was officiating in St. Michael's for a
week only, during the absence of the rector, was a man unknown to fame
even in his own dioc