"No, indeed! We are children, obeying a Father's orders, no matter how enigmatical; and having done our part, letting Him work out the answer to the puzzle. A so-called ignorant woman once furnished the best definition of Faith I ever heard;--'taking the Lord at his word.' It is safer to believe, than to argue, Ellen." Aunt Judy's aphorism was bandied about on Tuesday until it was hacknied. Ida feared the appearance of her "Bubly Jock;" but her prime counsellor, Will, his stalwart arms bared to the shoulder, to turn an ice-cream churn, said confidently, that "she nor Miss Laura should be pestered with him that evening. I've got his written bond to stay at home, and eat the supper that will be sent to him. Mars' Charley and Mr. Lacy's been to see him too. They came while I was there, 'on a sociable visit,' they said, but before they went away, he was crying like a child--they talked so beautiful!" The bridal paraphernalia was laid in array, and Emma and Laura tying up bouquets; Ida directing, but not permitted to assist. "Ellen cannot find that arbor-vitae surely!" said Emma. "I wish she had let me go!" Ellen burst into the room, and flinging herself into a chair, laughed immoderately. "What has happened?" cried a trio of voices. "The wheel of luck has turned! It is a 'wonderful ordering' that brings Josephine Read upon this, of all days in the year!" "Josephine!" Ida seemed to behold a ghoul. She had invited her because propriety demanded she should not slight the daughter of her former guardian, after living in the house with her six years; then she was fond of Anna Talbot, and a separate invitation was not to be thought of. The possibility of her coming had not entered her mind. How could she present herself at the door of her, whom she had denounced as her mortal foe? Emma stood aghast, and Laura in bewilderment, at the dismay depicted in the faces of her friends. "I am sorry for you, Ida," continued Ellen; "and if I were a magician, would whisk her off to Guinea in the time it would take me to say 'Presto!' but if you did not feel so badly, I would delight in her spiteful rage, when she knows that she has come to your wedding--and with Mr. Lacy! Oh! it is transporting!" "Worse and worse!" said Ida, sorrowfully. "Unkind as she has been, I would not wound her; and she will never be persuaded that the insult was unpremeditated." "'Insult!' forsooth! who is insulted, pray, but yourself, by the intrusion of a woman, who has reviled and backbitten you, until the town cried out against her evil tongue! Oh! the shamelessness of a wicked gossip!" "Where is she?" questioned Ida. "In the north chamber. Anna Talbot, Messrs. Thornton and Villet came with her." "Charley said he asked them--and I am glad Anna is here--but oh! Josephine! and I am _en dishabille_! Emma, will you run up to them? you are at home." "Willingly." The kind-hearted girl emptied her lap of the flowers. "And explain everything," said Ida.