Love stories; Unmarried mothers -- Fiction; Women household employees -- Fiction
The ceremony was performed on April fifteenth, at the residence of Mrs.
Gerald, a Roman Catholic priest officiating. Lester was a poor example
of the faith he occasionally professed. He was an agnostic, but because
he had been reared in the church he felt that he might as well be
married in it. Some fifty guests, intimate friends, had been invited.
The ceremony went off with perfect smoothness. There were jubilant
congratulations and showers of rice and confetti. While the guests were
still eating and drinking Lester and Letty managed to escape by a side
entrance into a closed carriage, and were off. Fifteen minutes later
there was pursuit pell-mell on the part of the guests to the Chicago,
Rock Island and Pacific depôt; but by that time the happy couple were
in their private car, and the arrival of the rice throwers made no
difference. More champagne was opened; then the starting of the train
ended all excitement, and the newly wedded pair were at last safely
off.
“Well, now you have me,” said Lester, cheerfully pulling Letty down
beside him into a seat, “what of it?”
“This of it,” she exclaimed, and hugged him close, kissing him
fervently. In four days they were in San Francisco, and two days later
on board a fast steamship bound for the land of the Mikado.
In the meanwhile Jennie was left to brood. The original announcement in
the newspapers had said that he was to be married in April, and she had
kept close watch for additional information. Finally she learned that
the wedding would take place on April fifteenth at the residence of the
prospective bride, the hour being high noon. In spite of her feeling of
resignation, Jennie followed it all hopelessly, like a child, hungry
and forlorn, looking into a lighted window at Christmas time.
On the day of the wedding she waited miserably for twelve o’clock to
strike; it seemed as though she were really present—and looking on. She
could see in her mind’s eye the handsome residence, the carriages, the
guests, the feast, the merriment, the ceremony—all. Telepathically and
psychologically she received impressions of the private car and of the
joyous journey they were going to take. The papers had stated that they
would spend their honeymoon in Japan. Their honeymoon! Her Lester! And
Mrs. Gerald was so attractive. She could see her now—the new Mrs.
Kane—the only _Mrs._ Kane that ever was, lying in his arms. He had held
her so once. He had loved her. Yes, he had! There was a solid lump in
her throat as she thought of this. Oh, dear! She sighed to herself, and
clasped her hands forcefully; but it did no good. She was just as
miserable as before.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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