lly and truly poetic and fitting,
something to remember. She had a plan. The wedding should be in June?
Yes. And she would be ready? Yes. And all the family, at least, should
be there? Yes. But she asked that she might keep the secret of the
precise time and the exact place as long as possible; it would make it
all seem so much more spontaneous and natural.

The situation was a little peculiar, I grant you, and somewhat
embarrassing to the rest of the family, including Chichester. But he
took it like a man, and backed Ethel up with the utmost decision, just
as if her idea was what he had always thought of and determined to do.
What was his chin for, if he could not give her a firm support in a
thing like this? As a matter of fact he did not care in the least where
the wedding might be. A man never does. It does not seem to be his
business. Ethel's paternal parent, however, had some misgivings which
must be satisfied.

"Is it a church?" he growled; "none of your dusty, shabby little Higher
Light shrines, eh?"

"Yes, it's a church," said Ethel solemnly, "and a very old and
beautiful church."

"And a Christian ceremony," he insisted; "parson, robes,
prayer-book--regular thing--no sideshow performance, eh?"

"Of course," said she, "what do you think? Do you suppose that just
because I see things in an original way, I don't know what's proper? I
like to hear the Swami Abikadanda talk; and I don't want a regular
cut-and-dried wedding; but I'm not going to take any risks about a
thing like that. The clergyman will be there, and you will give me
away, and Gladys and Victoria will be the bridesmaids, and Arthur will
be the best man, and Howard and Willis----"

"Well, well," grunted her father, with his chuckling laugh, "it's all
right, I suppose, seeing that it's your wedding. Have it your own way
while you can." For the old man had formed his idea of the significance
of Chichester's chin.

So it was settled that the affair should remain unsettled for every one
except Ethel; and the whole family was plunged into a cheerful state of
evasion, prevarication, and downright falsification; and Chichester
grinned and smoothed the left side of his chin with his forefinger and
said, "What do I care for that? It's all right, I know," and everybody
predicted that Ethel Asham was about to do something very original.

In the middle of June she marshalled her party for a little Canadian
_giro_. There were her father and mother; and