Be not amazed at life. ’Tis still The mode of God with His elect: Their hopes exactly to fulfil, In times and ways they least expect. Who marry as they choose, and choose Not as they ought, they mock the priest, And leaving out obedience, lose The finest flavor of the feast.—ALFORD. The wedding-day of Dick and Anna was fixed for the fifteenth of May. Then came consultations about the details of the festival. Should it _be_ a festival? Anna thought not. Her marriage had been so often appointed and so often arrested that she said it would be best taste now to get it over as quietly as possible. She and her betrothed, attended only by General Lyon and Drusilla, would go to church and be married in their traveling-dresses, and start immediately on the wedding tour. Such was Anna’s plan. But General Lyon would not hear of such a thing. What! marry off his granddaughter and heiress to his nephew in such a semi-clandestine manner, as if he were half-ashamed of the proceeding? What, disappoint all the young people in the neighborhood, who had every right to expect a festival on the marriage of Miss Lyon, of Old Lyon Hall? Not while _he_ was head of the family! Anna should be married at home. And there should be such a celebration of the nuptials as the lads and lasses around the hall should remember to the latest day of their lives. Anna urged that in the middle of May the weather would be too warm for a ball. General Lyon agreed that it would; but added that the weather would be delightful for a festival in the open air on the beautiful grounds of the manor; it would be neither too warm nor too cold, but exactly right for dancing on the lawn. The marriage ceremony he said should be performed in the great drawing-room, the wedding breakfast should be laid in the long dining-room; but the music and dancing should be enjoyed in the open air. Anna laughingly appealed to Dick and to Drusilla to take her part against this decision of the General. But Drusilla and Dick declined to interfere and remained conscientiously neutral. So the will of the General carried the day. This obstinacy of the old gentleman made it necessary that a great deal of business should be done, and done at once, as the time was so short to the wedding-day. Wedding cards must be printed and circulated. A new trousseau must be prepared. A sumptuous breakfast must be devised. Certain deeds must be executed. In furtherance of these works, Dick first went up to Richmond to deal with lawyers and engravers. And soon after his departure General Lyon and Anna went to Washington to negotiate with milliners and pastry cooks.