ners, and my beautiful wife will wear blue velvet, or white
lace, or peachy silk--"

"Or all three together," the prospective wife suggested, "with the flags
of all nations in my hair!"

"Then next year we'll visit old Gilchrist, at Monterey, and go up to
Tahoe," continued Jim, unruffled. "Or we could take some place in
Ross--"

"And then I will give a small and select party for one guest," said
Julia whimsically, "and board him, free, for fifteen or twenty years--"

"Julia, you little _duck_!" Jim bent his head over her in the starlight,
and felt her soft hair brush his face, and caught the glint of her
laughing eyes close to his own, and the vague delicious little perfume
of youth and beauty and radiant health that hung about her. "Do you know
that you are as cunning as a sassy kid?" he demanded. "Now, kiss me once
and for all, and no nonsense about it, for I can hear the others coming
back!"

Two days later they were married, very quietly, in the little Church of
Saint Charles Borromeo, where Julia's father and mother had been married
a quarter of a century ago. They had "taken advantage," as Julia said,
of her old grandfather's death, and announced that because the bride's
family was in mourning the ceremony would be a very quiet one. Even the
press was not notified; the Tolands filled two pews, and two more were
filled by Julia's mother, her grandmother, and cousins. Kennedy Scott
Marbury and her husband were there, and sturdy two-year-old Scott
Marbury, who was much interested in this extraordinary edifice and
impressive proceeding, but there were no other witnesses. Julia wore a
dark-blue gown, and a wide black hat whose lacy brim cast a most
becoming shadow over her lovely, serious face. She and Miss Toland drove
from the settlement house, and stopped to pick up Mrs. Page, who was
awed by Julia's dignity, and a little resentful of the way in which
others had usurped her place with her daughter. However, Emeline had
very wisely decided to make the best of the situation, and treated Miss
Toland with stiff politeness. Julia was in a smiling dream, out of which
she roused herself, at intervals, for only a gentle, absent-minded "Yes"
or "No."

"I tried to persuade her to be married at the Cathedral, by His Grace,"
said Miss Toland to Mrs. Page. "But she wanted it this way!"

"Well, I'm sure she feels you've done too much for her as it is,"
Emeline said mincingly. "Now she must turn around and return some of