"As 'best man' I claim an old-fashioned privilege!" he said, and kissed her lightly on the cheek. She blushed a vivid red,--then suddenly grew ghastly pale,--and with a kind of choking cry, reeled back in a dead faint in the arms of one of her bridesmaids. It was some minutes before she was restored to consciousness,--but she made light both of my alarm and the consternation of her friends,--and assuring us that it was nothing but the effect of the heat of the weather and the excitement of the day, she took my arm and walked down the aisle smilingly, through the brilliant ranks of her staring and envious 'society' friends, all of whom coveted her good fortune, not because she had married a worthy or gifted man,--that would have been no special matter for congratulation,--but simply because she had married five millions of money! I was the appendage to the millions--nothing further. She held her head high and haughtily, though I felt her tremble as the thundering strains of the 'Bridal March' from Lohengrin poured sonorous triumph on the air. She trod on roses all the way,--I remembered that too, ... afterwards! Her satin slipper crushed the hearts of a thousand innocent things that must surely have been more dear to God than she;--the little harmless souls of flowers, whose task in life, sweetly fulfilled, had been to create beauty and fragrance by their mere existence, expired to gratify the vanity of one woman to whom nothing was sacred. But I anticipate,--I was yet in my fool's dream,--and imagined that the dying blossoms were happy to perish thus beneath her tread! A grand reception was held at Lord Elton's house after the ceremony,--and in the midst of the chattering, the eating and the drinking, we,--my newly made wife and I,--departed amid the profuse flatteries and good wishes of our 'friends' who, primed with the very finest champagne, made a very decent show of being sincere. The last person to say farewell to us at the carriage-door was Lucio,--and the sorrow I felt at parting with him was more than I could express in words. From the very hour of the dawning of my good fortune we had been almost inseparable companions,--I owed my success in society,--everything, even my bride herself,--to his management and tact,--and though I had now won for my life's partner the most beautiful of women, I could not contemplate even the temporary breaking of the association between myself and my gifted and brilliant comrade, without a keen pang of personal pain amid my nuptial joys. Leaning his arms on the carriage-window, he looked in upon us both, smiling. "My spirit will be with you both in all your journeyings!" he said--"And when you return, I shall be one of the first to bid you welcome home. Your house-party is fixed for September, I believe?" "Yes,--and you will be the most eagerly desired guest of all invited!" I replied heartily, pressing his hand.