Doris wanted to see Sam, but he was away with his cab, and therefore she
could only leave a message for him.
She was exceedingly happy as she returned to Hastings with Bernard in a
luxurious corridor-train--so happy, indeed, that she felt at peace with
all the world, and therefore ventured to suggest:
"Couldn’t we have your mother to our wedding, too, Bernard?"
The young man’s face darkened, and his voice shook as he answered, "No,
I think not. I--I _could_ not."
"We shall have to forgive her, dear," pleaded Doris.
"Yes--in time. You must give me time, dear." Bernard was silent for
several minutes after that, and then he said abruptly, "We will go to
see her after we are married."
"Yes, dear," acquiesced Doris; "I should like that."
The day came quickly which was to make them man and wife.
Theirs was a pretty wedding, although the wedding guests were only two,
and they were not of the same rank in life as the handsome bridegroom
and the beautiful bride, supported by her friends, and bridesmaid,
dressed like herself in costly silk and lace. Doris was in white, and
Alice in creamy yellow, whilst Bernard, of course, was in immaculate
attire, his good-looking young face lit up with love and joy and
thankfulness to God.
"Bless them! God bless them!" exclaimed good Mrs. Austin as the young
couple left the vestry, where Doris had signed her maiden name for the
last time.
"Amen," said Sam, "and may they live long happy years!"
Sam had only one regret about the wedding, and that was that he could
not bring his cab down to be used on the occasion. "I should like to
have driven them to church in it," he confided to his mother. "It would
have been a sort of finish to the two rides I gave Miss Anderson in it.
First when I drove her to Earl’s Court Square, and then home to you when
she was in such distress, and afterwards when I drove her round to see
those skin-flinty old picture-dealers about selling her pictures."
But now the bride and bridegroom had to be met, congratulated, and
wished all sorts of happiness.
"Thank you! Thank you!" said Doris, shaking hands with Sam, and lifting
up her glad young face to kiss his mother, while Bernard shook hands
warmly with them both, thanking them for himself and his bride.
Later in the day Alice drove with Bernard and Doris to the station to
see them off in the train for Portsmouth, as they were going to the Isle
of Wight for their honeymoon.
Doris clung to her a little at the last. "I don’t know how to thank
you, Alice," she said; "you have been like a dear sister to me."
[Illustration: "DORIS CLUNG TO HER AT THE LAST. ’YOU HAVE BEEN LIKE A
DEAR SISTER TO ME.’"]
"I don’t want thanking," protested Alice.
"But you will feel so lonely, dear, when we have gone."
"Never mind me," said Alice; "you know to-morrow I shall start for
Switzerland, in order to join my brother there, and then there will be
no more loneliness for me."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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