puckered her face to cry, and Mr. Dick took a step forward, but Miss
Patty waved him off. "You know father as well as I do, Dolly. You know
what he is, and lately he's been awful. He's not well--it's his liver
again--and he won't listen to anything. Why, the Austrian ambassador
came up here, all this distance, to talk about the etiquette of the--of
my wedding, something about precedence, and he wouldn't even see him."

"He can't annul it," said Mr. Dick angrily. "I'm of age. And I can
support my wife, too, or will be able--soon."

"Dolly's not of age," said Miss Patty wearily. "I've sat up all night
figuring it out. He's going to annul the marriage, or he'll make a
scandal anyhow, and that's just as bad. Dolly,"--she turned to her
sister imploringly--"Dolly, I can't have a scandal now. You know how
Oskar's people have taken this, anyhow; they've given in, because he
insisted, but they don't want me, and if there's a lot of notoriety now
the emperor will send him to Africa or some place, and--"

"I wish they would!" Mrs. Carter burst out suddenly. "I hate the whole
thing. They only tolerate you--us--for our money. You needn't look at
me like that; Oskar may be all right, but his mother and sisters are
hateful--simply hateful!"

"I'll not be with them."

"No, but they'll be with you." Mrs. Dicky walked over to the window and
looked out, dabbing her eyes. "You've been everything to me, Pat, and
I'm so happy now--I'd rather be here on a soap box with Dick than on
a throne or a dais or whatever you'll have to sit on over there, with
Oskar. I want to be happy--and you won't. Look at Alice Thorne and her