Oh, Mrs. Evan,
if they'd only come and wear some of their fine clothes to light up the
church, it would be in the papers, the _Bee_ and the _Week's News_ over
town maybe, and give me such a start! For you know I'm to live in New
York, and as I've never left home before, it would be so pleasant to know
somebody there!"

I almost made up my mind to try to put things before her in their true
light, and save her from disappointment, but then I realized that I was
too near her own age. Ah, if Lavinia Dorman had only been here that day
she could possibly have advised Fannie without giving offence.

* * * * *

_May 16th._ The wedding is over. Shall I ever forget it? The rain and
cool weather of the past ten days kept back the apple blossoms, so that
the supply for decorating the church was poor and the blossoms
themselves only half open and water-soaked. Mrs. Jenks-Smith, who always
hears everything, knowing of the dilemma, in the goodness of her heart
sent some baskets of hothouse flowers, but the girls and men who were
decorating did not know how to handle them effectively, for Fannie, still
clinging to sentiment, had gilded nearly a barrel of old horseshoes,
which were tied with white ribbon to every available place, being
especially prominent on the doors of the reserved pews.

Late in the afternoon a fine mist set in with clouds of fog, which, if it
got into the church, I knew would completely conceal the glimmer of the
oil lamps. It seems that Papa Penney was not told until an hour before
the ceremony that he was to walk up the aisle with the bride on his arm
and give her away. This he flatly refused to do. He considered it enough
of an affliction to have the wedding in church at all, and it was not
until his wife had given her first exhibition of fainting, and Fannie had
cried her eyes red, that he apparently yielded.

We arrived at the church at about ten minutes to eight, father and Evan
having been persuaded to come in recognition of good neighbourhood
feeling. The back part of the church was well filled, but the space
above the ribbon was painfully empty. The glimmering lamps did little
more than reveal the gloom, and the horseshoes gave a strange
racing-stable effect.

We tried to spread ourselves out as much as possible to fill up, and
presently the Ponsonby girls entered with some friends, seemingly
astonished at being seated within the barrier, for they had never seen
their