il, scalp the bride by tearing off her veil with a
flying heel, and fall down on some of the fine lace flouncing around the
box pleats hiding the chiffon and the crepe de chine. Hygeia told me the
style of the wedding gown was Princess, but there was a reception
gown--I was told, but I forget now how many yards it contained; if the
8,643 tucks were taken out and the goods stretched, I understood there
was enough to show that a silk mill and lace factory had been busy
several days. As for the silkworms, I suppose they were all summer
chewing up a row of mulberry bushes on this job. Weddings make a lot of
work for everybody.

Hygeia did everything possible to make it pleasant for Gabrielle at the
hospital. She tactfully left the sick man alone with his "sister" the
greater part of every afternoon. With sorrow to knit more firmly the
bonds of love, it would appear that no disturbing influence could enter
there. They chatted quietly and laughed merrily, and when they were not
doing either they were silently telling each other of their happiness by
those glances that had partially betrayed their secret to Hygeia before
she learned it from Gabrielle's lips.

Gabrielle became such a motherly person at the hospital! With a dainty
white dotted Swiss apron tied in sprightly bows about her waist, "in
sweet perfection cast," she sat near the window sewing or embroidering
some bit of finery that must be finished for the wedding, and by her
hands alone. Jim was so full of joy he didn't care how long it took his
broken leg to mend. The aches and twinges from that quarter were hardly
felt by him after the first day of his confinement; his head was right,
and he was eager for the daily coming of Gabrielle.

Well do I comprehend how Jim felt. He did not yearn with sickening hope
deferred, for he had won the heart of the girl. Contentedly he rested in
the sunshine of her smiles, and fell asleep beneath the shadow of her
tresses, her small, cool hand on his fevered brow, her low words of
sympathy lulling him to the land of rest and sweet dreams of her. I
realize how it was with them, because it was so different with me. The
chill of loneliness cast by suspicion compelled my silence on the things
I was bursting to tell to sympathetic ears. My only visitor was the
cheerful nurse, but she was a stranger to my woes, I thought, and could
not help me.

Jim frequently asked Gabrielle concerning me. When he had been there
three weeks, he manif