'My dear,' said Mrs. Powder benevolently, 'I am sure he does not want you to open his packages for him.'

'I should think you were going to open a shop, if I didn't know better,' remarked Molly in evident great curiosity.

'She won't tell,' said Josephine. 'I suppose she is keeping her own secret. She wants me to believe that she don't feel the chains of wedlock a bit.'

'Maybe it is too soon for that,' said Molly.

'O is it!' said Mrs. Charteris. 'I should like to see that. Just as soon as the minister has done, and said, "I p.r.o.nounce you man and wife,"?from that minute a man is changed. He is your very obedient servant when he walks up the aisle; dear me, when he comes down!?'

'But you are joking, Mrs. Charteris,' said Molly, half alarmed.

'After that, he has the power, and you are queen no longer, but must follow him round the world if he beckons; and he knows it, and he lets you know it too.'

'That is a foolish way of talking, Josephine,' said her mother. 'Of course, there is a certain truth in it, and there ought to be. A man is the head of his house. The only thing to be desired is, that he should rule it well.'

'I don't care whether it is well or ill,' rejoined Josephine. 'What I object to is being ruled at all. It is horrid! _You_ can't talk, mamma, because you know you always held the reins yourself. It's intolerable to have to ask a man for money, unless he is your own father; and to have him put his nose into your affairs and say this must be and that mustn't be. Women know just as well as men how things ought to be.'

'I think they do,' said Molly.

'And better,' added Josephine.

But at this point Hazel gave way and laughed. Such a ring of appreciation and merriment and gladness of heart, as was good to hear. The soft notes made Mrs. Powder smile; but poor Josephine, who could not laugh so, turned aside quick to hide the very different change which came over her face. Before anything further could be said, the door opened again and Rollo came in. He came in with a look upon his face which changed when he saw the three people he had not expected to see. It did not grow less bright, but it changed; the look that was for his wife was for no other upon earth; nor even for her in the presence of others. He went through the necessary greetings and congratulations with a manner of courtly carelessness, which involuntarily made Hazel think of those first days when she knew him at Catskill.

'Do you want to buy anything, ladies?' said he then, setting on the table a bronze standish which Hazel had just freed from its wrappings.

'Will you tell us what all this means, Dane?' said Mrs. Powder.

'Santa Claus's spillings out of his sleigh.'

'Spillings!' echoed the lady. 'What must the sleigh load have been!'

'O that's the way these people do things,' said Josephine. 'What I should like to know, is where the sleigh load went to.'

'Down various chimneys, of course,' said Dane.

'Do you know,' the lady went on, 'it is very mean of you, Dane Rollo, to have gone and married the only rich woman in our part of the country. You ought to have left her for somebody else.'

'If you would like a basket,' said Rollo coolly, pulling some of his wickerware into line, 'you may have one. I can afford it.'

'May I have one too?' queried Molly.

'Help yourself.?Mrs. Powder, you are a housekeeper?are there none among all these varieties that would serve a purpose for you?

Mrs. Charteris, aren't you fond of flowers? I will bestow upon you this big flower-holder.'

It was one of the best specimens of the poor basket-maker's work, being a delicate wicker stand, pretty enough for the drawing-room or a boudoir. Josephine silently accepted the gift, looking at it with strange eyes; while Molly set about a search for what might serve her turn. Mrs. Powder sat as a spectator, curious, and at the same time amused.

'We have got more than baskets here,' Rollo went on, pulling off twine and paper. 'Here is a tea-kettle. Who wants this article??

Here is an hour-gla.s.s.'

'O let me have that!' quoth Molly Seaton. 'I never saw an hour- gla.s.s before. What's this in it?'

'Minutes and seconds,' said Josephine.

'No, but really. It would be dreadful to see one's minutes and seconds running away in this manner. What is this in the gla.s.s?'

'Did you never hear of the sands of life, child?' said Mrs. Powder.

'They were brought from the sh.o.r.es of time, too,' added Josephine, 'by an adventurous traveller.'

'What is it?' cried a lively voice from the again opening door. 'A reception at the opening of spring goods? I come in, because I hear sounds?' And Miss Kitty Fisher presented herself, stopping just inside the door. 'I do vow!' she said. '_What_ is it??"All for Love"?

or "She stoops to Conquer"? Katharine and Petruchio seems to be played out. Well, if I were a turtledove in a big cage!'?

'You would coo, I suppose,' said Josephine scornfully. 'Turtledoves always do, and they are a great humbug.'

'I should doubtless bob my head to the other turtledove,' said Kitty, making a profound reverence to the gentleman present.

Rollo came forward and offered the lady his arm; then gravely led her across the big room among baskets and packages to where Wych Hazel was seated on her low cushion.

'd.u.c.h.ess,' said he with stately form, 'Primrose's cousin Kitty desires to be recommended to your grace.'

'No, I don't,' said Kitty. 'That's a fib. The d.u.c.h.ess and I were well "acquaint" when Duke did not stand quite so high in favour. But I am thankful for my part, you two people have given up mischief and settled down. Sit still among your baskets, child; they become you.'

'Perhaps you will sit down among the baskets too,' said Dane.

'Don't you want one?'

'It's only to look and choose, Kitty,' said Molly Seaton. 'Such another chance you won't have again.'

'If you have one large enough to hold her valentines,' said Hazel with a glance at "Duke,"?'that might do.'

'Valentines!' echoed Kitty Fisher,?'you'd better! Richard is going into a decline, madam, I suppose you know. And the major is drowning care?and himself with it. And Lancaster's pining for war and a stray bullet;?and Stuart Nightingale? Then in town here there's a list of killed, wounded and missing as long as my arm. O I must tell you the best joke. There was a parcel of men dining at the club the other day, and toasting Miss Kennedy, witch, sorceress, etc.?till they couldn't see. Then in rushes Tom McIntyre, out of breath, and says, "Miss Kennedy is extinct!"?I'd rather have seen their faces,' said Kitty, stopping to laugh, 'than get Stuart's best philopoena!'

'It really is unkind,' said Josephine, 'to take people so by surprise, without letting them get accustomed to the idea. Of course they are liable to fall into all sorts of ridiculous situations.'

'You have undertaken a great deal, Dane,' said Mrs. Powder, 'in venturing to marry a lady accustomed to so much admiration.'

'I like whatever I have to be admired,' said Rollo coolly.

'But how do you expect she will do without it in future?'

Dane lifted his eyes for a second to the lady with a certain hidden sparkle in their gravity, and asked her, so seriously that she was entrapped by it, 'If she thought admiration was bad for people in general?' Mrs. Powder fell into the snare, and before she knew it was involved in a deep philosophical and moral discussion, as far as heaven from earth removed from all personalities. The younger ladies however found this tiresome.

'Do leave that mamma!' said Josephine. 'The question is, whether he and Hazel are going to give us a grand reception, and challenge the admiration of the world by something the like of which was never seen before. A scene out of the Arabian Nights, with enchantment, flowers, fruits and singing birds. They ought, for they can. What's the use of having money?'

'I dare say they will do something of that sort,' said the elder lady smiling. 'It really is Society's due, I think; especially as they have cheated the world with a private wedding.'

'I like to pay my dues,' said Dane carelessly, turning over and unpacking things all the while. 'Mrs. Powder, there is a paper knife for you.'

'But you don't do it,' the lady went on, smiling at the same time over the paper knife, which was very pretty. 'Now will you and Hazel hold a reception, as you ought to do, and let people see her as your wife?'