villanous to behold, a picture of misery.

Benno, the man of the world, was forced to leave the room. No sooner was
he outside than he laughed so heartily that he fell into a clothes
basket. He did not approve of this marriage; he was ashamed to tell his
friends about it.

Gertrude wore a plain street dress and a little virgin bonnet, then
prescribed by fashion. She sat by the table, and gazed into space with
wide-opened eyes.

Eleanore came into the room with a wreath of myrtle. "You must put this
on, Gertrude," she said, "just to please us; just to make us feel that
you are a real bride. Otherwise you look too sober, too much as though
you two were going to the recorder's office on profane business."

"Where did you get that wreath?" asked Jordan.

"I found it in an old chest; it is mother's bridal wreath."

"Really? Mother's bridal wreath?" murmured Jordan, as he looked at the
faded myrtle.

"Put it on, Gertrude," Eleanore again requested, but Gertrude looked
first at Daniel, and then laid it to one side.

Eleanore went up to the mirror, and put it on her own head.

"Don't do that, child," said Jordan with a melancholy smile.
"Superstitious people say that you will remain an old maid forever, if
you wear the wreath of another."

"Then I will remain an old maid, and gladly so," said Eleanore.

She turned away from the mirror, and looked at Daniel half unconscious
of what she was doing. The blond of her eyelashes had turned almost
grey, the red of her lips had been dotted with little spots from her
smiling, and her neck was like something liquid and disembodied.

Daniel saw all this. He looked at the Undine-like figure of the girl. It
seemed to him that he had not seen her since the day of his return, that
he had not noticed that she had become more mature, more beautiful, and
more lovely. All of a sudden he felt as if he were going to swoon. It
went through him like a flash: Here, here was what he had forgotten;
here was the countenance, the eye, the figure, the movement that had
stood before him, and he, fool, unspeakable fool, had been struck by
blindness.

Gertrude had a fearful suspicion of the experience he was going through.
She arose, and looked at Daniel in horror. He hastened up to her as if
he were fleeing, and seized her hands. Eleanore, believing she had
aroused Daniel's displeasure by some word or gesture, snatched the
myrtle wreath from her hair.

Jordan had paid no attention to these i