l about it--had the particulars from her sweet
friend, Mrs. Harrington, who was, they all knew, a sort of lady
patroness to the affair. Would she tell? Of course--why not? There was
no secret about it now, and it might be ten minutes before the bridal
party came in.

"Well, this was it. Mr. Mellen was--"

Oh they all knew about Mr. Mellen; he had been in business down town
before that worthy old gentleman his uncle died, and left him so
enormously rich that there was no guessing how many millions he was
worth. Did they know his sister? Of course: what a sweet pretty creature
she was! Strange that the old uncle forgot to make her an heiress,--cut
off a relative whom he had almost adopted, and left everything to
Mellen, who did not expect it. Sweet Elsie was quite overlooked, and had
nothing on earth but her beauty. But the bride, the bride, what about
her?

"Well," said Mrs. C----, coming out of this storm of whispers smiling
and flushed, "there is no great mystery in the bride. Indeed, so far as
she was concerned, everything was rather common-place--such people had
been done up so often in romances that it was tiresome."

"You don't mean to say that she was that eternal governess who is
continually travelling through magazines and marrying the rich young
gentleman of the house?" cried a voice, almost out loud.

"No, no, nothing quite so bad as that," answered Mrs. C----, with a low
soothing "hush," and shaking her head till all the pink roses on her
bonnet fluttered again. "She came from somewhere in New England. The
father was thought to be a rich man. At any rate he gave her a splendid
education, and travelled with her in Europe nearly two years, when she
was quite a missish girl. He also educated her cousin, the young man who
is to be groomsman, and gave him a handsome setting out in life; but
when the father died there was nothing left--all his property mortgaged
or something--at any rate Elizabeth never got a cent, and her cousin
would have been poor as a church-mouse but for the money which had set
him up in a splendid business. He wanted to make that over to her at
once."

"Generous fellow!"

"You may well say that," continued Mrs. C----, hushing down the
enthusiasm of her friends with a wave of her whitely gloved hand. "She
would not take a cent of his money, but came here to the very school
where she had been educated, and hired out as a teacher; it is said--but
I do not vouch for it--that her bills at