I'll stay where I am. 'Who giveth this woman to be married to this
man?' the old parson will ask; why won't he also ask, 'Who giveth this
man?' as if he too were only a chattel belonging to some one?"

That she would be disposed of by no one but her grandmother rather
pleased the old lady than otherwise; so she invested in yet another
black silk gown, over which she was to wear a seldom seen cape of
point lace worked by Dawn's mother; and she also purchased a wonderful
bonnet, and armed herself with a new pair of "lastings." Thus Dawn was
to have her way in this particular, but the old dame adhered to her
original intention in the matter of the Mudeheepes.

"I've kep' 'em at bay long enough now. I'll just acknowledge 'em this
once, or it will seem as if you was a 'illegitimate,'" said she in the
plenitude of her worldly wisdom, and thereupon "writ" a stiff though
not discourteous letter to Dawn's father, inviting any number of the
bride's relatives up to six, to come and spend a week before the
wedding in her home, for the purpose of making Dawn's acquaintance.

"There, I have done me duty, and they can suit theirselves whether
they come or go to Halifax," she remarked as she despatched the
communication.

They came. Dawn's father, his second wife, and his youngest sister,
Miss Mudeheepe, arrived three days before the wedding and remained to
grace the ceremony.

Dawn, being a mere girl, perhaps it was Ernest's wealth and position
induced them to meet Mrs Martha Clay's overture, for they were
thorough snobs, but if they had come prepared to patronise, their
intention was killed ere it bore fruit.

The hostess hired the town 'bus to convey them from the station, and
despatched Andrew, with many injunctions to "conduct hisself with
reason," to meet them there, while she and Dawn waited to receive them
on one of the old porches. It was a bower of roses and pot-plants, and
further shaded by a graceful pepper-tree, and made a beautiful frame
for the grandmother and the maiden,--the old dame so straight and
vigorous, the girl as roseate and fresh as her name, but each equally
haughty and bent upon maintaining their iron independence of the
people who had discarded the girl and her mother ere the former had
been born.

Personal appearance was much in their favour, and no practised belle
of thirty could have held her own better than the inexperienced girl
of nineteen, whose native wit and downright honesty of purpose w