Some men are cowards till the battle starts, then are heroes. When the Mayor and his triumphant bride, radiant on his arm, paused a moment outside the hall door for the march to begin, he was still the agitated craven. But when he saw within the hall the scores of gorgeous guests, and realised that he was the chief figure in this pageant, his spirit and _savoir-faire_ flowed back into him; and when Professor Bachmann's orchestra struck into the wedding-march he stepped magnificently forward, throwing to right and left ruddy, benign smiles. He bore himself grandly through the ceremony; he started the dancing by leading the grand march with Mrs. Hoffman in his most magnificent manner; and at the wedding supper, which was served in an adjoining room, he beamingly responded to the calls for a speech with phrases and flourishes that even he had never before equalled. At the end of the supper the party resumed dancing, and the Mayor had a chance to pause a moment beside David. He swept a huge, white-gloved hand gracefully about the room, and demanded in an exultant whisper: "Didn't I tell you, friend, that this was goin' to be the swellest weddin' that ever happened? Well, ain't it?" "It certainly is," agreed David. The Mayor tapped David's shirt-front with his forefinger. "It certainly is the real thing, friend. Nothin' cheap-skate about this, let me tell you. Everything is just so. Why, did you notice even the waiters wore white gloves? Yes, sir--when I get married, it's done right!" He leaned to within a few confidential inches of David's ear. "And say--have you sized up Carrie? Ain't she simply _It_! Huh, she makes every other woman in this bunch look like a has-been!" A little later, during a lull in the dancing, the Mayor and his bride, who had quietly withdrawn, suddenly appeared in the doorway of the hall, hatted and wrapped. "Good-bye!" boomed the Mayor's mighty voice. "Same luck to you all!" Mrs. Hoffman's finger-tips flung a kiss from her blushing lips to the guests, and the Mayor's hand gathered a kiss from amid his own glowing face and bestowed it likewise. The guests rushed forward, but the couple went down the stairs in a flurry, into a waiting carriage, and were gone. The dancing continued till early workmen began to clatter through the streets--for in the supper-room was enough cold meats and cake and punch and ices to gorge the guests for a week, and Professor Bachmann has been paid to keep his musicians going so long as a dancer remained on the floor. But David slipped away soon after the bride and groom. When he got home he found Kate Morgan sitting by Rogers's side. He looked at her in constraint, and she at him--and it was a very uncomfortable moment till Rogers announced: "She's going with me." David turned to his friend. There was an excited glow in Rogers's dark eyes. "What?" David asked. "She's going with me--to Colorado." David stared at him, and then at Kate, who nodded. "Oh, I see!" he said.