This form of approval was not resented, either by the enamored merchant
or the fair Moon Ying. So the marriage was celebrated in double form:
First, and with many protests, one of which went even to the length of a
temporary rupture of the marriage negotiations, there was a lawful
Christian ceremony at the Kendrick house. On this point the
protectresses were inexorable. Therefore, before the Reverend Doctor
Western, appeared Lan Yune Yow, portly, shiny, erect, dressed like a
rainbow and looking convinced that he was making a fool of himself; and
Moon Ying, radiant in silks, dazzling with pearls and embroideries, and
beaming with celestial happiness; and in lawful form they were
pronounced man and wife. Secondly, there was a wedding in Chinatown,
which was reported to be the most magnificent celebration ever witnessed
in the oriental quarter. We were not favored with an invitation to this
part of the marriage ceremonies, but we were participants in the
wedding-feast, for there descended on the Kendrick house such a shower
of Chinese confections and nuts and fruits that it seemed impossible
that any could be left for the bidden guests.
So Moon Ying went out of our lives, and carried with her our lasting
gratitude for the services she had unconsciously rendered.
Mr. Baldwin affected not to see me the next time we met, and then
repenting of his churlishness gave me his congratulations; but he never
called again at the Kendrick house, and presently consoled himself by
marrying the heiress of the Bellinger fortune.
Wharton Kendrick recovered strength slowly, but at last resumed his
place at the head of his business. He enlivened his convalescence by
telling me how much better he could have managed certain details of our
campaign if he could have been in command; but when he was wholly
himself again he made more handsome acknowledgments of his
approval--both verbal and financial--than I had a right to expect. While
he was still on his sick-bed, I asked him if he would mind telling me
the origin of the Bolton-Kendrick feud, now that it was all over.
"I’m ashamed to tell it," he said. "But if you will have it, the whole
thing started with a blackboard caricature that I drew of Bolton when we
were barefoot boys together at the old school-house. He retaliated by
drawing attention to a caricature I had made of the teacher, and I can
feel the tingle yet from the licking I got. It went on from one thing
to the other, like a fire spreading from a little match, until even San
Francisco wasn’t big enough to hold both of us. Sounds foolish when you
tell it, doesn’t it? But it’s been serious enough."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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