"Oh, now, Isabel! They'll all be glad enough by and by."

"Yes," said the daughter, from the landing above, "I've no doubt of
that."

She passed into her room, closed the door, and standing in the middle of
the floor, with her temples in her palms, said, "O merciful God! Oh,
Leonard Byington, if only that second hand of yours had hung back!"




V

SKY AND POOL


Arthur and Isabel were married in their own little church of All Angels,
at the far end of the old street.

"I cal'late," said a rustic member of his vestry, "th' never was as
pretty a weddin' so simple, nor as simple a weddin' so pretty!"

Because he said it to Leonard Byington he ended with a manly laugh, for
by the anxious glance of his spectacled daughter he knew he had slipped
somewhere in his English. But when he heard Leonard and Ruth, in
greeting the bride's mother, jointly repeat the sentiment as their own,
he was, for a moment, nearly as happy as Mrs. Morris.

"Such a pity Godfrey had to be away!" said Mrs. Morris. It was the only