f the farce which made Mr.
Pettigrew thereafter the tool of Leggett, and which might even more
easily have been a tragedy with the mountain people for actors and
himself its victim.

LIV.

AN UNEXPECTED PLEASURE

Ravenel and Fannie were married in church on an afternoon. The
bridesmaids were Barbara and a very pretty cousin of Fannie's from
Pulaski City, who would have been prettier yet had she not been
revel-worn. The crowded company was dotted with notables; Garnet and
Gamble took excellent care of the governor. But the bride's father was
the finest figure of all.

"Old Halliday looks grand!" said Gamble.

"I'm glad he does," kindly responded Garnet; "it would be a pity for him
to be disappointed in himself on such an occasion."

Parson Tombs kissed the bride, who, in a certain wildness of grateful
surprise, gave him his kiss back again with a hug. When Ravenel's
sister, from Flatrock, said:

"Well, Colonel Ravenel, aren't you going to kiss me?" he gracefully did
so, as if pleased to be reminded of something he might have forgotten.
And then he kissed the aged widow with whom he had lived so long. Her
cottage, said rumor, was not to be sold, after all, to make room for the
new brick stores. No, the Salters' house had been bought for that
purpose--it was ready to tumble down, anyhow--and on Miss Mary's
marriage, soon to be, Miss Martha and her mother would take the Halliday
cottage, the General keeping a room or two, but getting his meals at the
hotel.

"It's a way of living I've always liked!" he said, tossing his gray
curls.

The bridal pair, everybody understood, were to leave Suez on the
Launcelot Halliday, and turn northward by rail in the morning on an
unfamiliar route.

John March chose not to see the wedding. He remained in Pulaski City,
where for three days he had been very busy in the lobbies of the
Capitol, and was hoping to take the train for the north that evening.
Between the trifling of one and the dickering of another, he was delayed
to the last moment; but then he flung himself into a shabby hack, paid
double fare for a pretence of double speed, and at the ticket window had
to be called back to get his pocketbook. The lighted train was moving
out into the night as a porter jerked him and his valise on to the rear
platform.

He stood there a moment alone silently watching the lamps of the town
sink away and vanish. His thought was all of Fannie. She was Fannie
Ravenel now. Fate