the
sound of her father's voice as he spoke her name at the altar; and the
look in Oliver's eyes when she put her hand into his. All the rest was
enveloped in a shining mist which floated, like her wedding veil,
between the old life and the new.

"It has been so perfect--so perfect--if I can only be worthy of this day
and of you, Oliver," she said as the carriage started from the rectory
gate to the station.

"You angel!" he murmured ecstatically.

Her eyes hung blissfully on his face for an instant, and then, moved by
a sudden stab of reproach, she leaned from the window and looked back at
her mother and father, who stood, with clasped hands, gazing after her
over the white palings of the gate.

CHAPTER II

VIRGINIA'S LETTERS

MATOACA CITY, West Virginia, October 16, 1884.
DEAREST, DEAREST MOTHER:

We got here this morning after a dreadful trip--nine or ten hours
late--and this is the first minute I've had when I could sit down and
write to you. All the way on the train I was thinking of you and dear
father, and longing for you so that I could hardly keep back the tears.
I don't see how I can possibly stay away from you for a whole year.
Oliver says he wants to take me home for Christmas if everything goes
all right with us here and his work proves satisfactory to the manager.
Oh, mother, he is the loveliest thing to me! I don't believe he has
thought of himself a single minute since I married him. He says the only
wish he has on earth is to make me happy--and he is so careful about me
that I'm afraid I'll be spoiled to death before you see me again. He
says he loves the little grey dress of shot silk, with the bonnet that
makes me look like a Quaker. I wish now I'd got my other hat the bonnet
shape as you wanted me to do--but perhaps, after all, it will be more
useful and keep in fashion longer as it is. When I took out my clothes
this morning, while Oliver was downstairs, and remembered how you had
folded and packed everything, I just sat down on the floor in the midst
of them and had a good cry. I never realized how much I loved you until
I got into the carriage to come away. Then I wanted to jump out and put
my arms around you and tell you that you are the best and dearest mother
a girl ever had. My things were so beautifully packed that there wasn't
a single crease anywhere--not even in the black silk polonaise that we
were so afraid would get rumpled. I don't see how on earth you folded