profusely ornamented with jet, and Lillian had a new pink silk gown,
and wore a great bunch of roses. The situation, with regard to Maria,
in connection with the wedding ceremony and the bridal trip, had been
a very perplexing one. Harry had some western cousins, far removed,
both by blood and distance. Aunt Maria and her brother were the only
relatives on his former wife's side. Aunt Maria had received an
invitation, both from Harry and the prospective bride, to be present
at the wedding and remain in the house with Maria until the return of
the bridal couple from their short trip. She had declined in a few
stilted words, although Harry had sent a check to cover the expenses
of her trip, which was returned in her letter.

"The fact is, I don't know what to do with Maria," Harry said to Ida
Slome, a week before the wedding. "Maria won't come, and neither will
her brother's wife, and she can't be left alone, even with the new
maid. We don't know the girl very well, and it won't do."

Ida Slome solved the problem with her usual precision and promptness.

"Then," said she, "she will have to board at Mrs. White's until we
return. There is nothing else to do."

It was therefore decided that Maria was to board at Mrs. White's,
although it involved some things which were not altogether
satisfactory to Ida. Maria could not sit all alone in a pew, and
watch her father being married to his second wife, that was obvious;
and, since Mrs. Jonas White was going to take charge of her, there
was nothing else to do but to place herself and daughter in a
position of honored intimacy. Mrs. Jonas White said quite openly that
she was not in any need of taking boarders, that she had only taken