's ladder down which
floated a company of angels in pink and ivory--one all in white, her
lovely head crowned by a film of old lace in which nestled a single
rose.

On she came--slowly--proudly--her slippered feet touching the carpeted
steps as daintily as treads a fawn; her gown crinkling into folds of
silver about her knees, one fair hand lost in a mist of gauze, the
other holding the blossoms which Jack had pressed to his lips--until she
reached her father's side.

"Dear daddy," I heard her whisper as she patted his sleeve with her
fingers.

Ah! but it was a proud day for MacFarlane. I saw his bronzed and
weather-beaten face flush when he caught sight of her in all her
gracious beauty; but it was when she reached his side and laid her hand
on his arm, as he told me afterward, that the choke came. She was so
like her mother.

The two swept past me into the old-fashioned parlor, now a bower of
roses, where Jack and Peter and Felicia, with the elect, waited their
coming, and I followed, halting at the doorway. From this point of
vantage I peered in as best I could over and between the heads of the
more fortunate, but I heard all that went on; the precise, sonorous
voice of the bishop--(catch Miss Felicia having anybody but a bishop);
the clear responses--especially Jack's--as if he had been waiting all
his life to say those very words and insisted on being heard; the soft
crush of satin as Ruth knelt; the rustle of her gown when she regained
her feet; the measured words: "Whom God hath joined together, let no
man put asunder"--and then the outbreak of joyous congratulations. As I
looked in upon them all--old fellow as I am--listening to their joyous
laughter; noting the wonderful toilettes, the festoons and masses of
flowers; watching Miss Felicia as she moved about the room (and never
had I seen her more the "Grande Dame" than she was that day), welcoming
her guests with a graciousness that must have opened some of their
eyes--even fat, red-faced Arthur Breen, perspiring in pearl-colored
gloves and a morning frock coat that fitted all sides of him except the
front, and Mrs. Arthur in moire antique and diamonds, were enchanted;
noting, too, Peter's perfectly appointed dress and courtly manners,
he taking the whole responsibility of the occasion on his own
shoulders--head of the house, really, for the time; receiving people at
the door; bowing them out again; carrying glasses of punch--stopping to
hobnob with this