r in happiness any day we chose. And if we do, we will let you
all in on it."

I am told that the bride looked superb, both in church and at the
reception which took place in the house of Kitty; and that General
Rieppe, in spite of his shattered health, maintained a noble appearance
through the whole ordeal of parting with his daughter. I noticed that
Beverly Rodgers and Gazza figured prominently among the invited guests:
Bohm did not have to be invited, for some time before the wedding he had
become the husband of the successfully divorced Kitty. So much for the
nuptials of Hortense and Charley; they were, as one paper pronounced
them, "up to date and distingue." The paper omitted the accent in
the French word, which makes it, I think, fit this wedding even more
happily.

"So Hortense," I said to myself as I read the paper, "has squared
herself with Charley after all." And I sat wondering if she would
be happy. But she was not constructed for happiness. You cannot be
constructed for all the different sorts of experiences which this world
offers: each of our natures has its specialty. Hortense was constructed
for pleasure; and I have no doubt she got it, if not through Charley,
then by other means.

The marriage of Eliza La Heu and John Mayrant was of a different
quality; no paper pronounced it "up to date," or bestowed any other
adjectival comments upon it; for, being solemnized in Kings Port, where
such purely personal happenings are still held (by the St. Michael
family, at any rate) to be no business of any one's save those
immediately concerned, the event escaped the famishment of publicity.
Yes, this marriage was solemnized, a word that I used above without
forethought, and now repeat with intention; for certainly no respecter
of language would write it of the yellow rich and their blatant unions.
If you're a Bohm or a Charley, you may trivialize or vulgarize or
bestialize your wedding, but solemnize it you don't, for that is not "up
to date."

And to the marriage of Eliza and John I went; for not only was the honor
of my presence requested, but John wrote me, in both their names, a
personal note, which came to me far away in the mountains, whither I had
gone from Kings Port. This was the body of the note:--

"To the formal invitation which you will receive, Miss La Heu joins her
wish with mine that you will not be absent on that day. We should
both really miss you. Miss La Heu begs me to add that if this is