"Are you speaking the truth?"

Miss Dane laid her hand upon her heart, and bowed profoundly.

"Doesn't Mr. Walraven know her?"

"That is a question I can not take it upon myself to answer. Mr.
Walraven is of age. Let him speak for himself."

"I told you before," said the bridegroom, angrily. "Let us have no more
about it, Blanche, or I may chance to lose my temper."

He turned on his heel and walked off whistling, and the bride, in her
snowy robes and laces, went down to breakfast, trying vainly to clear
her stormy brow. Mollie puckered up her rosy lips into a shrill whistle.

"And this is their wedding-day! I told him how it would be, but of
course nobody ever minds what I say. Poor guardy! what ever would become
of him traveling alone with that woman! How thankful he ought to be that
he has me to go along and take care of him!"

For Mollie had made it an express stipulation, contrary to all
precedent, that she was to accompany the happy pair on their bridal
tour. Miss Oleander's ante-nuptial objections had been faint; Mrs.
Walraven, less scrupulous, turned upon her husband at the eleventh hour,
just previous to starting, and insisted that she should be left at home.

"It will be ridiculous in the extreme," exclaimed the bride, "having
your ward traveling with us! Let her remain at home with your mother."