his
doubts and fears were removed, and that Bessie might be his in spite of
everything.

For a long time they talked together of the course to be pursued,
deciding finally that the matter should be kept to themselves until Grey
and Bessie were married, and with Hannah had been to Wales and proved
the validity of Bessie's claim to the effects of Joel Rogers.

There was no longer any talk of waiting until Christmas Eve, for the
marriage was to take place as soon as possible, and when Grey took
Bessie home to Miss McPherson he startled that good woman with the
announcement that he was to be married the last week in November and
sail at once for Europe, taking his Aunt Hannah with him.

CHAPTER XV.

WEDDING BELLS.

They rang first for Lord Hardy and Augusta Browne, who had intended to
be married in October, but whose wedding was deferred until the second
week in November, because, as Mrs. Rossiter-Browne expressed it,
"Gusty's bridal trouses could not arrive in time from Paris." Everything
pertaining to the young lady's wardrobe was ordered either from London
or Paris, and could Mrs. Browne have done it she would have bought the
Arch of Triumph, and, transporting it to Allington, would have set it up
in front of her house and illuminated it for the occasion. She should
never have another daughter marry an Irish lord, she said, and she meant
"to make a splurge and astonish the natives," and she did.

She had a temporary ball-room built at one side of the house, and
lighted it with a thousand wax candles. She had a brass band from
Springfield and a string band from Worcester. She had a caterer from
Boston, whom with her usual happy form of expression she called a
"canterer." She had colored waiters in white gloves in such profusion
that they stumbled over and against each other. She had an awning
stretched from the front door to the gate, with yards and yards of
carpeting under it.

"She had not been abroad for nothing, and she guessed she knew what was
what," she said to Lord Hardy when he hinted that a plainer wedding
would suit him quite as well, and that the money she was expending could
be put to better purpose.

"I guess we can stand it, and still have a nice little sum for Gusty,"
she added, and patting her future son-in-law upon the back she bade him
"keep cool and let her run the machine."

After that, Lord Hardy kept quiet, though he was never so near a fever
as during the week which preceded hi