CHAPTER XV
"AS IT WAS WRITTEN IN THE STARS" AND BETTY'S DIARY
"THE lights are out and gone are all the guests." It is very late, but Imust sit up and write the full account of it while it is all fresh andclear in my mind. Besides I am too wide awake to sleep even if I shouldtry. It was a beautiful, beautiful wedding; but I must go back ever sofar if I am to have no gaps in this record.
It is three years now since I went away to Warwick Hall to teach; full,hard years, but so rich in experiences and so helpful in my work thatI'd gladly go on with them if I were not needed here at home. But theydo need me now that Lloyd is married and gone, and although she has notgone far and will be in and out every day, and her room is just as sheleft it, and her place will always be hers, still I am the daughter ofthe house in many ways, and can in a measure make up to godmother andPapa Jack all they have done for me. I think they do feel repaid to agreat extent by my little successes and the prospect of more to followby and by. It made me so glad and proud when I heard Papa Jack tellingthe doctor to-day about the essays the _Atlantic_ had accepted of mine,and how pleased he was over the series of sketches that the New Yorkpublishers are going to bring out in book form in time for the holidays.The same publishers that refused my poor old novel too.
It does not seem possible that two years and a half have gone by sinceLloyd wrote to me of her engagement, but it seemed a long time to lookforward to then. Her father and mother would not have consented to giveher up any sooner even if Rob had been in a position to ask it. Now hehas been a member of his grandfather's firm for a full year, andeverybody says he is one of the most promising young lawyers everadmitted to the Louisville bar. He has gone into his life work as hewent into all his games--to win! And he is so big and strong and_dependable_, I know that godmother and Papa Jack feel perfectly safe ingiving Lloyd up to him. I think that even the old Colonel finds it alittle easier to be reconciled to the idea of her leaving because he isso fond and proud of Rob. But he seems to take it to heart more thanany one else.
Lloyd thought he did, too, and when she first began to plan her weddingshe asked her father if he would feel hurt if she asked her grandfatherinstead of him to go with her to the altar and give her away. "You know,Papa Jack," she said in that saucy way of hers that no one about theplace can resist, "you cut him off from the one chance he should havehad to perform that ceremony, by running away with mothah. So it's onlyfair you should make it up to him now by giving him the honah ofescorting me. Besides you and she have each othah, and he feels so leftout and lonely and is making such a deadly serious affair of my goingaway."
Papa Jack saw it from her point of view and was entirely willing to doas she wished. When the old Colonel found out what Lloyd wanted, he wasso touched and pleased and complimented that I think he must have lainawake nights trying to think of things to show his appreciation. Thislast week she called presentation week, because every single day hesurprised her with some lovely present.
The first day he gave her the little silver sugar-bowl with butterflyhandles and the cream-pitcher shaped like a lily that he had promisedher the first time she had a "pink party" up in his room, when she wasa tiny little girl. The next day it was a purse full of bright new goldpieces, and the next a locket that had been his mother's, all set roundwith sapphires, and with sapphires strung at intervals on the slenderchain that held it. One day the gift was a treasure of a rosewood chairand writing-desk that had belonged to Lloyd's grandmother Amanthis, withall the little mother-of-pearl articles that go with a desk, just as shehad used them. She was too surprised for anything the day he gave herthe harp. It had been called hers since she started to learn to play onit, but she never for a moment supposed he would allow it taken awayfrom The Locusts. The sixth present had no intrinsic value, but he hadtreasured it for years, a medal bestowed on one of his Virginiaancestors by the king, as a reward for his services to the crown inthose early days of struggle and stress in the colonies.
Then last and best of all in Lloyd's eyes was a splendid copy of thebeautiful portrait of her grandmother Amanthis. I cannot distinguish itfrom the original that has always hung over the mantel in thedrawing-room. The Colonel had a fine artist come on from New York topaint it, while Lloyd was at the seashore this summer.
She was so happy over it and all her heirlooms. She said she didn't wanther father and mother to give her any new silver. They had talked abouta full set. She said there was so much old family plate over at Oaklea,which she would far rather use. So godmother gave her a chest of linen,and Papa Jack some shares in the Arizona mines. She has actually seemedto take pleasure in the thought that she is marrying a poor man, and hasbeen preparing for it all during her engagement by keeping her expenseswithin a certain limit instead of spending in the lavish way she hasalways been accustomed to. She's taken such pride too in learning allthe housewifely arts that her grandmother and the Judge's wife were sonoted for.
Eugenia and Stuart Tremont came several days ago, and Joyce came withthem to be one of the bridesmaids. Phil could not leave his work justnow long enough to come, but he sent the dearest little gift--acut-glass honey dish and cover, with a honey spoon to go with it. Thespoon is a flat gold one with a cluster of bees on the handle. The notehe sent with it was dear, too, thanking her so beautifully for theinspiration and help her friendship had been to him, and for her goodadvice that sent him to "The School of the Bees."
Lloyd was so pleased that she hunted up a little unset turquoise he hadonce given her as a friendship stone, and Rob took it to town and had ajeweller set it into a tiny stick-pin for her, and she wore it as the"something blue" at her wedding.
Rob couldn't afford to give her an expensive present like the diamondpendant that Raleigh Claiborne gave Allison when they were married lastsummer, but it pleased Lloyd more than a queen's tiara could have done.It was just a little clasp to fasten her bridal veil. He had it made toorder--only a four-leaf clover, but the fourth leaf was diamond-set,because, like the one Abdallah found in Paradise, it was the leaf ofhappiness.
It was just a quiet church wedding, as simple as it could possibly bemade, in the late afternoon of one of the sweetest, goldenest Octoberdays that ever shone on the Valley. Only her most intimate friends wereinvited to the ceremony, because the little stone church is so small,but the doors were thrown open to everybody at the reception thatfollowed at The Locusts.
Since the church has been frescoed inside and done over in soft coolgreens, it makes me think of the heart of a deep beech woods. The lightslips in through its narrow deep-set windows just as it does betweenthe trees in the dim forest aisles. Lloyd wouldn't have it filled withhothouse roses. She said nothing could be as appropriate as the wildflowers growing all around it in the country lanes and meadows. So therewas nothing but tall plumes of goldenrod nodding in every open window,while the altar was a bank of snowy asters. She wanted them she saidbecause aster means star, and it was at the altar her happiness would bewritten for her in the stars.
She said, too, that as long as it was in the country and she needn'tthink of the conventions and could have things just as she pleased, shewanted it to be a white wedding--everybody in the bridal party to wearwhite. She said the old Colonel wouldn't look natural to her in anythingelse that time of year, and all the others would appear to betteradvantage. Every one said afterward what a beautiful picture it made.Rob and Malcolm and Keith and Ranald and Alex are all handsome youngfellows anyhow, and they looked bigger and handsomer than ever in theirimmaculate white suits. Malcolm was best man and I was maid of honour.Kitty and Joyce and Katie Mallard were the bridesmaids. We girls carriedarmfuls of the starry asters and the men wore them as boutonnieres.
"'SHE LOOKED TO ME JUST LIKE ONE OF HER OWN LILIES.'"]
As for Lloyd, when she came out of her room, her dress trailing behindher like a soft, pure-white cloud, so light and airy it seemed as if itmust have been woven on some fairy loom, and with a great cluster oflilies-of-the-valley in her hands, she looked to me jus
t like one of herown lilies. Poor old Mom Beck, who had dressed her, stood behind herwith the tears streaming down her black face, saying, "Honey, you sho'lynevah will look moah like a blessed angel when you git through thepearly gates than you do this minute!"
From the look on Rob's face as he met her at the white starry-crownedaltar, I am sure he felt that he had already gone through "the pearlygates." It was all so sweet and solemn, and as we listened to the words,"_Whom God hath joined together_," I think we all felt that heaven's ownbenediction rested on them, and would follow them all their way to the"Land o' the Leal."
How the people of the Valley poured in at The Locusts afterward to wishthem joy! Old and young, rich and poor, white and black, for of courseall the old servants of both families had to come in to pay theirrespects. I am sure that no more heartfelt good wishes were uttered thantheir "God bless you, Miss Lloyd, honey," or "I wish you joy, MistahRob," as the faithful black hands that had served them from babyhoodgrasped theirs with loyal good-will. They seem to count this year thatjoins the two old families and estates as a sort of year of jubilee.
It isn't often that a wedding has everybody's approval as this one has.Lloyd has always been as much of a favourite at Oaklea as Rob is at TheLocusts. The Judge is radiantly happy and Mrs. Moore has been as sweetand considerate about everything as if Lloyd were really her owndaughter. She wants Lloyd to take the place as mistress of the housejust as she did when _she_ went there a bride. She and Rob's fatherdidn't take a wedding journey, but went straight home to Oaklea to spendtheir honeymoon, and she was so pleased when she found that Lloyd andRob wanted to do the same. She and the Judge waited just long enough towelcome them home to-night, and then took the train for Alabama to visitsome of her people. They have long been wanting to make the trip, and sochose this time.
All the details of the supper were carried out just as they were atEugenia's wedding, excepting the charms. Lloyd vowed she had lost faithin them since Mammy Easter's fortune had failed to come true. By rightsJoyce should have been married before either Allison or herself becauseshe caught Eugenia's bouquet. But because the girls still believed inthem she did throw her bouquet from the top of the steps just before sheleft, and Kitty caught it.
It is only a step over to Oaklea, so she went away in her bridal gownand veil. I'll never forget the picture she made as she stood there inthe moonlight, waiting for the carriage to drive up for them, or theadoring look in Rob's eyes as he turned to lead her down the steps.Somehow it makes the tears come crowding up in such a mist I can hardlysee to write.
And now I have come to the last page of this volume of my Good-timesbook. Dear Lloyd, dear little sister who was the beginning of all mygood times, I am glad that heaven has sent you this happy day for me tochronicle! What a beautiful Road of the Loving Heart your girlhood hasleft in the memory of all your friends! What a spirit of joy you havebeen in this old home, and what an aching void you have left behind you!No matter what the years may hold in store, you will _be_ a blessingwherever you go, for you have learned to keep tryst with all that lifedemands of you. And because you were true to your Hildegarde promiseand wove only according to the silver yardstick, I can close this recordin the same words that end the old story we have both loved so long:"_So with her father's blessing light upon her, she rode away beside theprince; and ever after all her life was crowned with happiness as it hadbeen written for her in the stars!_"
THE END.
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Transcriber's Notes:
Obvious punctuation errors repaired. Varied hyphenation retained, forexample, upstairs and up-stairs.
Page 16, "vestage" changed to "vestige" (swept away every vestige)
Page 52, "It" changed to "Is" (Is he anything)
Page 95, "van guard" changed to "vanguard" (rear and a vanguard)
Page 131, "ilke" changed to "like" (Marks, like a good)
Page 236, "thinkng" changed to "thinking" (in thinking it over)
The Little Colonel's Knight Comes Riding Page 18