And now Steve was well in the toils of the net, and this was how it happened that Mrs. Lamont was spared further expense for her willful niece, and that Steve all but took Randolph's and Constance's breath away by inviting them to a very quiet wedding which was to take place at a church one morning about a week after this stormy scene, and society buzzed like a bee over the elopement, as it called it, and so forth, and so on, and all at once in the midst of the distractions Nannie caught her breath and cried out: "Why, goodness me! I'm married!" And Steve received the news with almost equal dismay. Really, if the Shah of Persia had presented this gentleman with a white elephant, with long flowing trunk and two tails--three or four tails, in fact--and this little gift had been brought up to his room on a silver salver (always supposing that were possible) he could not have felt much more nonplussed as to its proper disposal and care than he did when he suddenly came out of a dream to realize he had a wife on his hands. "Where do you wish to live, my dear?" he asked in a tone that might imply that he had all Europe and America to draw from as a place of residence. He was rather expecting Nannie to say that she wished to reside on Calumet Avenue and to have a coach and four purchased that very day. But nothing could surprise him now, so he received her abrupt answer calmly. "I want to live in the country, near Mrs. Chance." Happily this wish was not impossible of fulfillment, so Steve at once consulted his friends, and after much walking about (Nannie could walk) and much discussion, the four agreed upon a small dovecote of a place about a mile from Randolph's and Constance's home--a dear little cottage with enough land about it to raise anything and everything. Nannie was like a child with a new toy, and her delight lent her a hundred little airs and graces that would only have provoked Mrs. Lamont had she seen them. She always said that the child was rude and stupid in society where she should have done her best, and only fascinating with people who could be of no earthly use to her. And now the little kitchen was set up, the fire was burning briskly, the cook was at hand, and the delectable, indigestible material was ready for the spit. VI