it. B.

The San Reve read and re-read until she had every word by heart. Then
remembering the boy, she wrote in "New York," and sent him on his way.
Boy gone, the San Reve, doubts revived and all her jealous suspicions
restored to sharpest life, gave herself to groping out the meaning of
that message by the light of those lies wherewith Storri had solemnized
its production.

CHAPTER XXI

HOW THE GOLD CAME DOWN

Richard, ever modest and in this instance something timid, was for
having the wedding celebrated in Senator Hanway's study. He sought to
give the preference an atmosphere of sentiment by saying it was there he
first declared his love for Dorothy with his eyes. Bess protested
against the study, and insisted upon St. John's Church. Richard was not
to wed the most beautiful girl in the world, and then run away with her,
making the affair a secret, as though he had stolen a sheep. What! did
Richard imagine that Dorothy had been weeks over a trousseau to have it
extinguished in the narrow compass of Senator Hanway's study? The
marriage must be in St. John's where all mankind, or rather womankind,
might witness and criticise. Bess would be bridesmaid, sustained
thereunto by four damsels. Mr. Fopling should have his part as best man;
it would be good practice for Mr. Fopling, and serve to prepare him for
his own wedding, an event which Bess, under the exhilarating influence
of Dorothy's approaching nuptials, had determined upon for October.

Mrs. Hanway-Harley joined with Bess for the church. Mrs. Hanway-Harley
cast her vote delicately, saying she would have it expressly understood
that she only gave it as a view. She hoped no one would feel in any
sense bound thereby; she had not been, speaking strictly, a party to
this marriage, nothing in truth but a looker-on, and therefore it did
not become her to assume an attitude of authority. Mrs. Hanway-Harley
would only say that churches were the conventional thing and studies
were not.

Richard capitulated; indeed he gave way instantly and at the earliest
suggestion of "church." His surrender, made with the utmost humility,
did not prevent both Bess and Mrs. Hanway-Harley from demonstrating
their position in full.

"When all is said," declared Richard, "the main thing is the wedding."

Mrs. Hanway-Harley would like to know what plans had been laid for the
honeymoon. To what regions would the happy pair migrate, and for what
space? Mrs. Hanway-Harley wore a