"Then I have induced you to undertake a poor venture and must suffer the consequences, which to me will be no hardship at all. In that case I will agree to find some better business for you, but I am quite positive you will make a go of the _Millville Weekly Tribune_."
"I think so, too, Mr. Merrick, or I would not accept your generous offer," replied Smith.
"What do you think, Hetty?"
"The idea pleases me immensely," she declared. "It is a splendid opportunity for us, and will enable us to live here quietly and forget the big outside world. New York has had a bad influence on both you and me, Thursday, and here we can begin a new life of absolute respectability."
"When do you intend to be married?" asked Patsy.
"We have scarcely thought of that, as yet, for until this evening we did not know what the future held in store for us."
"Couldn"t you arrange the wedding before we leave?" asked Beth. "It would delight us so much to be present at the ceremony."
"I think we owe the young ladies that much, Thursday," said Hetty, after a brief hesitation.
"Nothing could please me better," he a.s.serted eagerly.
So they canva.s.sed the wedding, and Patsy proposed they transfer the paper to Thursday and Hetty--to become a weekly instead of a daily--in a week"s time, and celebrate the wedding immediately after the second issue, so as to give the bridal couple a brief vacation before getting to work again. Neither of them wished to take a wedding trip, and Mr.
Merrick promised to rush the work on the new building so they could move into their new rooms in the course of a few weeks.
CHAPTER XXIV
A CHEERFUL BLUNDER
"We would like to ask your advice about one thing, sir," said Thursday Smith to Mr. Merrick, a little later that same evening. "Would it be legal for me to marry under the name of Thursday Smith, or must I use my real name--Harold Melville?"
Uncle John could not answer this question, nor could the major or Arthur. Hetty and her fiance had both decided to cling to the name of Thursday Smith thereafter, and they disliked to be married under any other--especially the detestable one of Harold Melville.
"An act of legislature would render your new name legal, I believe,"
said Mr. Merrick; "but such an act could not be pa.s.sed until after the date you have planned to be married."
"But if it was made legal afterward it wouldn"t matter greatly,"
suggested the major.
"I do not think it matters at all," a.s.serted Hetty. "It"s the man I"m marrying, not his name. I don"t much care what he calls himself."
"Oh, but it must be legal, you know!" exclaimed Patsy. "You don"t care now, perhaps, but you might in the future. We cannot be certain, you know, that Thursday is entirely free from his former connection with Harold Melville."
"Quite true," agreed the major.
"Then," said Smith, with evident disappointment, "I must use the hateful name of Melville for the wedding, and afterward abandon it for as long as possible."
The nieces were greatly pleased with Uncle John"s arrangement, which relieved them of the newspaper and also furnished Thursday and Hetty, of whom they had grown really fond, with a means of gaining a livelihood.
Millville accepted the new arrangement with little adverse comment, the villagers being quite satisfied with a weekly paper, which would cost them far less than the daily had done. Everyone was pleased to know Thursday Smith had acquired the business, for both he and Hetty had won the cordial friendship of the simple-hearted people and were a little nearer to them than "the nabob"s girls" could ever be.
Preparations were speedily pushed forward for the wedding, which the nieces undertook to manage themselves, the prospective bride and groom being too busy at the newspaper office to devote much attention to the preliminaries of the great event.
The ceremony was to take place at the farmhouse of Mr. Merrick, and every inhabitant of Millville was invited to be present. The minister would drive over from Hooker"s Falls, and the ceremony was to be followed by a grand feast, for which delicacies were to be imported from New York.
The girls provided a complete trousseau for Hetty, as their wedding present, while Arthur and the major undertook to furnish the new apartments, which were already under construction. Uncle John"s gift was a substantial check that would furnish the newly married couple with modest capital to promote their business or which they could use in case of emergencies.
It was the very day before the wedding that Fogerty gave them so great and agreeable a surprise that Uncle John called it "Fogerty"s Wedding Present" ever afterward. In its physical form it was merely a telegram, but in its spiritual and moral aspect it proved the greatest gift Thursday and Hetty were destined to receive. The telegram was dated from New York and read as follows:
"Harold Melville just arrested here for pa.s.sing a bogus check under an a.s.sumed name. Have interviewed him and find he is really Melville, so Thursday Smith must be some one else, and doubtless a more respectable character. Shall I undertake to discover his real ident.i.ty?"
Uncle John let Thursday and Hetty answer this question, and their reply was a positive "no!"
"The great Fogerty made such a blunder the first time," said Hetty, who was overjoyed at the glorious news, "that he might give poor Thursday another dreadful scare if he tackled the job again. Let the mystery remain unfathomable."
"But, on the contrary, my dear, Fogerty might discover that Thursday was some eminent and good man--as I am firmly convinced is the truth,"
suggested Mr. Merrick.
"He"s that right now," a.s.serted Hetty. "For my part, I prefer to know nothing of his former history, and Thursday says the present situation thoroughly contents him."
"I am more than contented," said Thursday, with a happy smile. "Hetty has cured me of my desire to wander, and no matter what I might have been in the past I am satisfied to remain hereafter a country editor."