Miss Billy Married.
by Eleanor H. Porter.
CHAPTER I. SOME OPINIONS AND A WEDDING
"I, Bertram, take thee, Billy," chanted the white-robed clergyman.
""I, Bertram, take thee, Billy,"" echoed the tall young bridegroom, his eyes gravely tender.
"To my wedded wife."
""To my wedded wife."" The bridegroom"s voice shook a little.
"To have and to hold from this day forward."
""To have and to hold from this day forward."" Now the young voice rang with triumph. It had grown strong and steady.
"For better for worse."
""For better for worse.""
"For richer for poorer," droned the clergyman, with the weariness of uncounted repet.i.tions.
""For richer for poorer,"" avowed the bridegroom, with the decisive emphasis of one to whom the words are new and significant.
"In sickness and in health."
""In sickness and in health.""
"To love and to cherish."
""To love and to cherish."" The younger voice carried infinite tenderness now.
"Till death us do part."
""Till death us do part,"" repeated the bridegroom"s lips; but everybody knew that what his heart said was: "Now, and through all eternity."
"According to G.o.d"s holy ordinance."
""According to G.o.d"s holy ordinance.""
"And thereto I plight thee my troth."
""And thereto I plight thee my troth.""
There was a faint stir in the room. In one corner a white-haired woman blinked tear-wet eyes and pulled a fleecy white shawl more closely about her shoulders. Then the minister"s voice sounded again.
"I, Billy, take thee, Bertram."
""I, Billy, take thee, Bertram.""
This time the echoing voice was a feminine one, low and sweet, but clearly distinct, and vibrant with joyous confidence, on through one after another of the ever familiar, but ever impressive phrases of the service that gives into the hands of one man and of one woman the future happiness, each of the other.
The wedding was at noon. That evening Mrs. Kate Hartwell, sister of the bridegroom, wrote the following letter:
BOSTON, July 15th.
"MY DEAR HUSBAND:--Well, it"s all over with, and they"re married. I couldn"t do one thing to prevent it. Much as ever as they would even listen to what I had to say--and when they knew how I had hurried East to say it, too, with only two hours" notice!
"But then, what can you expect? From time immemorial lovers never did have any sense; and when those lovers are such irresponsible flutterbudgets as Billy and Bertram--!
"And such a wedding! I couldn"t do anything with _that_, either, though I tried hard. They had it in Billy"s living-room at noon, with nothing but the sun for light. There was no maid of honor, no bridesmaids, no wedding cake, no wedding veil, no presents (except from the family, and from that ridiculous Chinese cook of brother William"s, Ding Dong, or whatever his name is. He tore in just before the wedding ceremony, and insisted upon seeing Billy to give her a wretched little green stone idol, which he declared would bring her "heap plenty velly good luckee"
if she received it before she "got married." I wouldn"t have the hideous, grinning thing around, but William says it"s real jade, and very valuable, and of course Billy was crazy over it--or pretended to be). There was no trousseau, either, and no reception. There was no anything but the bridegroom; and when I tell you that Billy actually declared that was all she wanted, you will understand how absurdly in love she is--in spite of all those weeks and weeks of broken engagement when I, at least, supposed she had come to her senses, until I got that crazy note from Bertram a week ago saying they were to be married today.
"I can"t say that I"ve got any really satisfactory explanation of the matter. Everything has been in such a hubbub, and those two ridiculous children have been so afraid they wouldn"t be together every minute possible, that any really rational conversation with either of them was out of the question. When Billy broke the engagement last spring none of us knew why she had done it, as you know; and I fancy we shall be almost as much in the dark as to why she has--er--mended it now, as you might say. As near as I can make out, however, she thought he didn"t want her, and he thought she didn"t want him. I believe matters were still further complicated by a girl Bertram was painting, and a young fellow that used to sing with Billy--a Mr. Arkwright.
"Anyhow, things came to a head last spring, Billy broke the engagement and fled to parts unknown with Aunt Hannah, leaving Bertram here in Boston to alternate between stony despair and reckless gayety, according to William; and it was while he was in the latter mood that he had that awful automobile accident and broke his arm--and almost his neck. He was wildly delirious, and called continually for Billy.
"Well, it seems Billy didn"t know all this; but a week ago she came home, and in some way found out about it, I think through Pete--William"s old butler, you know. Just exactly what happened I can"t say, but I do know that she dragged poor old Aunt Hannah down to Bertram"s at some unearthly hour, and in the rain; and Aunt Hannah couldn"t do a thing with her. All Billy would say, was, "Bertram wants me." And Aunt Hannah told me that if I could have seen Billy"s face I"d have known that she"d have gone to Bertram then if he"d been at the top of the Himalaya Mountains, or at the bottom of the China Sea. So perhaps it"s just as well--for Aunt Hannah"s sake, at least--that he was in no worse place than on his own couch at home. Anyhow, she went, and in half an hour they blandly informed Aunt Hannah that they were going to be married to-day.
"Aunt Hannah said she tried to stop that, and get them to put it off till October (the original date, you know), but Bertram was obdurate.
And when he declared he"d marry her the next day if it wasn"t for the new license law, Aunt Hannah said she gave up for fear he"d get a special dispensation, or go to the Governor or the President, or do some other dreadful thing. (What a funny old soul Aunt Hannah is!) Bertram told _me_ that he should never feel safe till Billy was really his; that she"d read something, or hear something, or think something, or get a letter from me (as if anything _I_ could say would do any good-or harm!), and so break the engagement again.
"Well, she"s his now, so I suppose he"s satisfied; though, for my part, I haven"t changed my mind at all. I still say that they are not one bit suited to each other, and that matrimony will simply ruin his career.
Bertram never has loved and never will love any girl long--except to paint. But if he simply _would_ get married, why couldn"t he have taken a nice, sensible domestic girl that would have kept him fed and mended?
"Not but that I"m very fond of Billy, as you know, dear; but imagine Billy as a wife--worse yet, a mother! Billy"s a dear girl, but she knows about as much of real life and its problems as--as our little Kate. A more impulsive, irresponsible, regardless-of-consequences young woman I never saw. She can play divinely, and write delightful songs, I"ll acknowledge; but what is that when a man is hungry, or has lost a b.u.t.ton?
"Billy has had her own way, and had everything she wanted for years now--a rather dangerous preparation for marriage, especially marriage to a fellow like Bertram who has had _his_ own way and everything _he"s_ wanted for years. Pray, what"s going to happen when those ways conflict, and neither one gets the thing wanted?
"And think of her ignorance of cooking--but, there! What"s the use?
They"re married now, and it can"t be helped.
"Mercy, what a letter I"ve written! But I, had to talk to some one; besides, I"d promised I to let you know how matters stood as soon as I could. As you see, though, my trip East has been practically useless. I saw the wedding, to be sure, but I didn"t prevent it, or even postpone it--though I meant to do one or the other, else I should never have made that tiresome journey half across the continent at two hours" notice.
"However, we shall see what we shall see. As for me, I"m dead tired.
Good night.
"Affectionately yours,
"KATE."
Quite naturally, Mrs. Kate Hartwell was not the only one who was thinking that evening of the wedding. In the home of Bertram"s brother Cyril, Cyril himself was at the piano, but where his thoughts were was plain to be seen--or rather, heard; for from under his fingers there came the Lohengrin wedding march until all the room seemed filled with the scent of orange blossoms, the mistiness of floating veils, and the echoing peals of far-away organs heralding the "Fair Bride and Groom."