as it has been already
told? It may be that no one cares to follow her fortunes any further, or
feels the least desire to know what the future has in store for her, to say
nothing of the friends who have been associated with her; and as I have no
wish to bore you, dear reader, gentle or otherwise, it rests with you to
say if their married lives shall be laid bare or not.

I am aware that the marriage of my heroine lacked the _eclat_ which usually
attends events of that kind--in story books--but I fancy the average reader
is well acquainted with all the details of an elaborate wedding, and must
be surfeited with the various accounts of them by this time. However, if
that is the style of wedding you prefer, I can give the names of several
volumes which contain everything you can possibly desire in the way of
description of gorgeous wedding costumes and all the rest of the
paraphernalia that goes along with them, and you can read any account that
suits you better, then take up my story further along. See?

Those that take objection to Dexie's home-life--particularly to that
immediately preceding her marriage--are reminded that such lives do exist.
When death visits a family, and removes the restraining head, the petty
faults of the remaining inmates are apt to grow apace, unless the Angel of
Death has touched their hearts with divine grace. Lacking this, the
development of character has a downward tendency. It does not make pleasant
reading, but I have not told an impossible tale. But who knows "how the
other half lives?"

The question is--Do you care to know if Dexie has chosen her life as wisely
as she might have done? Would her married life have been happier if she had
married Lancy Gurney? The affection they had for each other was akin to
love; there was a sympathy between them which those who have an intense
love for music can alone understand, and which might have proved a source
of happiness, even during a life-long existence. They might not have
experienced the rapture of heartfelt love, but their lives might have been
more peaceful and contented without it, for deep love often means keen
sorrow.

Or would it have been better if she had accepted the love as well as the
money which Hugh McNeil was so anxious to lay at her feet? She might have
learned to care for him in time, and to have found pleasure in a life
surrounded by all the joys that wealth can bestow. To have an abundance of
worldly goods, and to be ex