Ten minutes later, she came back to the dining-room and threw herself
down on the sofa, with her head on Hubert's knee and her elbow in the
orderly work-basket.

"Do you know," she said abruptly; "I think our venerable father is a
goose."

"Teddy!" Hope's tone was remonstrant.

"I can't help it, if it isn't respectful; I do. He's lived long enough
to know better, and he ought to be put to bed without his supper, even
if it is his wedding day." She started up, to add emphasis to her words;
but Hubert seized her two long braids of hair and drew her head down on
his knee again.

"Calm yourself, Teddy," he said, bending forward to peer into her face.
"You are worse than the children. I told Hope that it was in the air,
to-night."

"Why shouldn't it be?" she demanded. "Here are we, three grown-up
children, sitting in a row at home and knowing that, this very evening,
our own father is being married to a stranger. It's horrid."

"It may not be so bad, Teddy," Hope said consolingly, as she rolled up
Hubert's socks in a ball and tossed them at her brother. "You know we
saw her once and we all liked her."

"That was before we knew what was going on. You may think a person is
pretty and nice and all that; but that doesn't mean you want her for a
mother."

"I don't believe she'll be so bad," Hubert observed judicially. "She's
been to college and she knows a good deal, and she's pretty and not
easily shocked. Don't you remember how she laughed at Babe's awful
speeches?"

"I remember just how she looked," Hope said. "She must have been amused
at our innocence. I don't see why the reason never struck us that we
were all dragged over to the hotel to see her."

"Because we had some respect for papa," Theodora said tartly. "I don't
see why he needs to go and get married again, and I won't say I'm glad
to see her, when she comes. There!"

"Ted is afraid that Madame will make her toe the mark," Hubert said
teasingly. "You've had your own way too long, Miss Teddy, and now you
will have to come to terms. Isn't that about the truth of it?"

The clock struck eight, and Hope raised her head.

"Listen," she said. "Isn't it a strange feeling that now, in the middle
of the lights and the music and the wedding march, papa, our own father,
is being married, while we sit here just as we always do?"

The three young faces grew grave at the thought, Hope's with the sweet
romance of her years, Hubert's with interest, and Theodora's