shindy, had all gaped, and then howled, when told that the dinner was
to celebrate his marriage. "I got spliced kind of in a hurry," he
explained; "so I couldn't have any bachelor blow-out; but my--my--my
wife, Mrs. Curtis, I mean--and I, thought we'd have a spree, to show
I am an old married man."

The fellows, after the first amazement, fell on him with all kinds of
ragging: Who was she? Was she out of baby clothes? Would she come in a
perambulator?

"Shut up!" said the bridegroom, hilariously. He went home to Eleanor
tingling with pride. "I want you to be perfectly stunning, Star! Of
course you always are; but rig up in your best duds! I'm going to make
those fellows cross-eyed with envy. I wonder if you could sing, just
once, after dinner? I want them to hear you! (Mr. Houghton will love her
voice!)"

Eleanor--who had stopped counting the minutes of married life now, for,
this being the sixth day of bliss, the arithmetic was too much for
her--was as excited about the dinner as he was. Yet, like him, under the
excitement, was a little tremor: "They will be angry because--because we
eloped!" Any other reason for anger she would not formulate. Sometimes
her anxiety was audible: "Do you suppose Auntie has written to Mr.
Houghton?" And again: "What _will_ he say?" Maurice always replied, with
exuberant indifference, that he didn't know, and he didn't care!

"_I_ care, if he is horrid to you!" Eleanor said "He'll probably say it
was wicked to elope?"

Mr. Houghton continued to say nothing; and the "care" Maurice denied,