wide ones and guests going into the room will not be blocked in the
doorway by others coming out.

The best man turns up and wants the bride's luggage.

The head usher comes to ask whether the Joneses to be seated in the fourth
pew are the tall dark ones or the blond ones, and whether he had not
better put some of the Titheringtons who belong in the eighth pew also in
the seventh, as there are nine Titheringtons and the Eminents in the
seventh pew are only four.

A bridesmaid-elect hurries up the steps, runs into the best man carrying
out the luggage; much conversation and giggling and guessing as to where
the luggage is going. Best man very important, also very noble and silent.
Bridesmaid shrugs her shoulders, dashes up to the bride's room and dashes
down again.

More presents arrive. The furniture movers have come and are carting lumps
of heaviness up the stairs to the attic and down the stairs to the cellar.
It is all very like an ant-hill. Some are steadily going forward with the
business in hand, but others who have become quite bewildered, seem to be
scurrying aimlessly this way and that, picking something up only to put it
down again.

=THE DRAWING-ROOM=

Here, where the bride and groom are to receive, one can not tell yet what
the decoration is to be. Perhaps it is a hedged-in garden scene, a palm
grove, a flowering recess, a screen and canopy of wedding bells--but a
bower of foliage of some sort is gradually taking shape.

=THE DINING-ROOM=

The dining-room, too, blossoms with plants and flowers. Perhaps its space
and that of a tent adjoining is filled with little tables, or perhaps a
single row of camp chairs stands flat against the walls, and in the center
of the room, the dining table pulled out to its farthest extent, is being
decked with trimmings and utensils which will be needed later when the
spaces left at intervals for various dishes shall be occupied. Preparation
of these dishes is meanwhile going on in the kitchen.

=THE KITCHEN=

The caterer's chefs in white cook's caps and aprons are in possession of
the situation, and their assistants run here and there, bringing
ingredients as they are told; or perhaps the caterer brings everything
already prepared, in which case the waiters are busy unpacking the big tin
boxes and placing the _bain-marie_ (a sort of fireless cooker receptacle
in a tank of hot water) from which the hot food is to be served. Huge tubs
of cracked ice in which