CHAPTER X A WEDDING AND OTHER INCIDENTS Stuart and Palma were both very glad and very grateful that Mrs. Walling had undertaken all the responsibilities of their cousin’s wedding. They knew that her means were ample, and that Walling & Walling were advancing, and would continue to advance, any sum that Randolph or Judith might require for their personal preparations. They knew also that Mrs. Walling was sincerely delighted with the idea of the wedding celebration at her own house; whereas, had it been settled to come off at the Stuarts’ apartments, Stuart, from impecuniosity, and Palma, from inexperience, would have been very much embarrassed. Mrs. Walling was in her element selecting a proper trousseau and outfit for Judy. She came in her carriage every morning to take Palma out shopping with her and Judy. Mrs. Moseley could not accompany the party; not because she was a little way out of town, for the cars ran all the time and would have brought her in in fifteen minutes, but because she was “up to her eyes in business” settling her large family in their new home. So Mrs. Walling, Palma, and Judy went out together every day, until all the shopping was completed. Judy’s outfit was a very complete but not a very costly one. “You know, dear,” Mrs. Walling explained to Palma, “that our little friend is not going at all into society for two or three years to come. The young pair will live very quietly somewhere, to advance their education, before they show themselves to their neighbors at Haymore; and so she will really need little more than a schoolgirl’s ‘kist.’ Her wedding dress, of course, must be a pretty one, and her traveling dress must be very nice, but the others plain and simple and inexpensive.” Palma agreed to the prudence of all this. And Judy said never a word. She left her affairs entirely in the hands of her two friends. While the lady shopped for Judy she shopped for herself as well. But, after a day or two, she could not but notice that Palma bought nothing; that she let all the tempting goods, so pretty and so cheap, pass under her admiring eyes unpurchased. “What is the matter with the young one?” inquired Augusta of herself. “Doesn’t she care for dress at all?” Then she remembered that she had never seen Mrs. Stuart in but two dresses, and very inexpensive ones at that, namely, an India muslin, sometimes, in her evenings at home, and a fine crimson cashmere for visiting. And then it occurred to Augusta Walling that the Stuarts might be in straitened circumstances; and her heart was touched with sympathy for the beautiful young woman who saw so many attractive articles of adornment pass under her eyes or be bought by others without being able to buy one of them. And she wondered how she might make Palma a pretty present without giving offense.