Part 55 (1/2)
CHAPTER LV.
THE WEDDING.
Many times Aunt Betsy had hobbled to the door, and shading her eyes with her hand, had looked wistfully up the hill in quest of Mark and Helen, wondering why they stayed out so long, when they must know the sun was nearly down, and wondering next if Morris would never go home about his business and give Katy a chance to dress.
Poor, worried, unfortunate Aunt Betsy! her foot was very lame, and her arm was badly bruised; but she bandaged it up in camphor and sugar, wincing at the terrible smart when the wash was at first applied, but saying to Morris, who asked if it did not hurt cruelly: ”Yes, it hurts some, but nothin' to what the poor soldiers is hurt; and I wouldn't mind it an atom if I hadn't broke the dish with the heathenish name.”
And, indeed, the loss of the charlotte russe did weigh heavily on Aunt Betsy's mind, proving the straw too many, and only Bell Cameron, who, with Lieutenant Bob, had come on the same train with Mark and Mrs.
Banker, had power to rea.s.sure her by telling her that charlotte russe was not essential at all; that, for her part, she was glad to have it out of sight, as it was her especial detestation. This comforted Aunt Betsy, who had made many of her preparations for the wedding with a direct reference to the ”city folks” so confidently expected. The substantials were for the neighbors--those who would have no supper at home, but reserve their appet.i.tes for the wedding viands; while the delicacies, the knickknacks, were designed exclusively for ”them stuck-up critters, the Camerons,” not one of whom, it now seemed, would be present except Bell. Father Cameron was not able to come; he would gladly have done so if he could, and he sent his blessing to Katy, with the wish that she might be very happy in her second married life. This message Bell gave to Katy, and then tried to form some reasonable excuse for her mother's and Juno's absence, for she could not tell how haughtily both had declined the invitation, Juno finding fault because Katy had not waited longer than two years, and Mrs. Cameron blaming her for being so very vulgar as to be married at home, instead of in church, where she ought to be. On this point Katy herself had been a little disquieted, feeling how much more appropriate it was that she be married in the church, but shrinking from standing again a bride at the same altar where she had once before been made a wife. She could not do it, she finally decided; there would be too many harrowing memories crowding upon her mind, and as Morris did not particularly care where the ceremony was performed, provided he got Katy at the last, it was settled that it should be at the house, even though Mrs. Deacon Bannister did say that she had supposed Dr. Grant too High Church to do anything as Presbyterianny as that.
Bell's arrival at the farmhouse was timely, for the unexpected appearance in their midst of one whom they looked upon as surely dead had stunned and bewildered the family to such an extent that it needed the presence of just such a matter-of-fact, self-possessed woman as Bell to bring things back to their original shape. It was wonderful how the city girl fitted into the vacant niches, seeing to everything which needed seeing to, and still finding time to steal away alone with Lieutenant Bob, who kept her in a painful state of blus.h.i.+ng by constantly wis.h.i.+ng it was his bridal night as well as Dr. Grant's, and by inveighing against the weeks which must still intervene ere the day appointed for the grand ceremony to take place in Grace Church, and which was to make Bell his wife.
”Ain't Morris ever goin' home? He won't be dressed in time, as sure as the world, if he stays here much longer,” Aunt Betsy said a dozen times, until at last her patience was exhausted, and going boldly in where he was, she bade him start in at once, or he would not have time to put on his best coat and jacket, let alone Katy's changin' her clothes.
Thus importuned, Morris quitted the house, just as Mark and Helen came slowly up, their faces happier, if possible, than his own, and telling of the great joy which had succeeded their dark night of sorrow.
”Come in here, Helen, I have something to show you,” Mrs. Banker said, after she had again embraced and wept over her long-lost son, whose return was not quite real yet, and leading her daughter-in-law to her bedroom, she showed her the elegant white silk which had been made for her just after her marriage, two years before, and which with careful forethought she had brought with her, as more suitable now for the wedding than Helen's mourning weeds.
”I made the most of my time last night after receiving Mark's telegram, and had it modernized somewhat,” she said. ”And I brought your pearls, for you know you will be most as much a bride as Katy, and I have a pride in seeing my son's wife appropriately dressed.”
Far different were Helen's feelings now, as she donned the elegant dress, from what they had been the first and only time she wore it. Then the bridegroom was where danger and death lay thickly around his pathway, but now he was at her side, kissing her cheek where the roses were burning so brightly, and calling still deeper blushes to her face by his teasing observations and humorous ridicule of his own personal appearance. Would she not feel ashamed of him, in his soiled, faded uniform? And would she not cast longing glances at her handsome brother-in-law and the stylish Lieutenant Bob? But Helen was proud of her husband's uniform, as a badge of what he had suffered, and when the folds of her rich dress swept against it, she did not draw them away, but nestled closer to him, leaning upon his shoulder, and when no one was near, winding her soft arms about his neck, whispering: ”My darling Mark, I cannot make it real yet.”
Softly the night shadows fell around the farmhouse, and in the rooms below a rather mixed group was a.s.sembled--all the _elite_ of the town, with many of Aunt Betsy's neighbors, and the doctor's patients, who had come to see their loved physician married, rejoicing in his happiness, and glad that the mistress of Linwood was not to be a stranger, but the young girl who had grown up in their midst, and who, by suffering and sorrow, had been molded into a n.o.ble woman, worthy of Dr. Grant. She was ready now for her second bridal, and she looked like some pure waxen figure in her dress of white, with no vestige of color in her face, and her great blue eyes s.h.i.+ning with a brilliancy which made them almost black. Occasionally, as her thoughts leaped backward over a period of almost six years, a tear trembled on her long eyelashes, but Morris, as often as he saw it, kissed it away, asking if she were sorry.
”Oh, no, not sorry that I am to be your wife,” she answered; ”but it is not possible that I should forget entirely the roughness of the road which has led me to you.”
”They are waiting for you,” was said several times ere the parties waited for were quite ready to go; but everything was done at last, and slowly down the stairs pa.s.sed Mark Ray and Helen, Lieutenant Bob and Bell, with Dr. Grant and Katy, whose face, as she stood again before the clergyman and spoke her marriage vows, shone with a strange, peaceful light, which made it seem to those who gazed upon her like the face of some pure angel.
There was no thought then of that deathbed in Georgetown--no thought of Greenwood, or the little grave in Silverton, where the crocuses and hyacinths were blossoming--no thought of anything save the man at her side, whose voice was so full and earnest, as it made the responses, and who gently pressed the little hand as he fitted the wedding ring. It was over at last, and Katy was Morris' wife, blus.h.i.+ng now as they called her Mrs. Grant, and putting up her rosebud lips to be kissed by all who claimed that privilege. Helen, too, came in for her share of attention, and the opinion of the guests as to the beauty of the respective brides, as they were termed, was pretty equally divided; both were beautiful, and both bore traces of the suffering and suspense which had purified and made them better.
In heavy, rustling silk, which actually trailed an inch, and cap of real lace, Aunt Betsy hobbled among the crowd, her face aglow with the satisfaction she felt at seeing her nieces so much admired and appreciated, and her heart so full of good will and toleration that after the supper was over, and she fancied a few of the younger ones were beginning to feel tired, she suggested to Bell that she might start a dance if she had a mind to, either in the kitchen or parlor, it did not matter where, and ”Ephraim would not care an atom,” a remark which brought from Mrs. Deacon Bannister a most withering look of reproach, and slightly endangered Aunt Betsy's standing in the church. Perhaps Bell Cameron suspected as much, for she replied that they were having a splendid time as it was, and as Dr. Grant did not dance, they might as well dispense with it altogether. And so it happened that there was no dancing at Katy's wedding, and Uncle Ephraim escaped the reproof which his brother deacon would have felt called upon to give him had he permitted so grievous a sin, while Mrs. Deacon Bannister, who, at the first trip of the toe, would have felt it her duty to depart, lest her eyes should look upon the evil thing, was thus permitted to remain until ”it was out,” and the guests retired _en ma.s.se_ to their respective homes.
The carriage from Linwood stood at the farmhouse door, and Katy, wrapped in shawls and hood, was ready to go with her husband to the home where she knew so much of rest and quiet awaited her. There were no tears shed at this parting, for their darling was not going far away; her new home was just across the fields, and through the soft moonlight they could see its chimney tops, and trace for some little distance the road over which the carriage went, bearing her swiftly on, her hands fast locked in Morris', her head upon his arm, and the hearts of both too full of bliss for either to speak a word until Linwood was reached, when, folding Katy to his bosom in a pa.s.sionate embrace, Morris said to her:
”We are home at last--your home and mine, my precious, precious wife.”
The village clock was striking one, and the sound echoed across the waters of Fairy Pond, awakening, in his marshy bed, a sleeping frog, who sent forth upon the warm, still air a musical, plaintive note as Morris bore his bride over the threshold and into the library, where on the hearth a cheerful fire was blazing. He had ordered it kindled there, for he had a fancy ere he slept to see fulfilled the dream he had dreamed so often, of Katy sitting in the chair across the hearth, where he placed her now, himself removing her shawl and hood, then kneeling down before her, with his arm around her waist and his head upon her shoulder, he prayed aloud to the G.o.d who had brought her there, asking His blessing upon their future life, and dedicating himself and all he had to his Master's service. It is such prayer which G.o.d delights to answer; and a peace, deeper than they had yet known, fell upon that newly-married pair at Linwood.
CHAPTER LVI.
CONCLUSION.