"There will be no reception. The minister was requested to announce from the chancel that there could be none," replied the young lady.

"Lor'! Lor'! Lor'! An' all dem good t'ings to eat goin' to waste!"

deplored the cook.

"They need not. Cakes and sweetmeats and candies will keep until they are consumed."

"Yes, miss; but de chickun sallit, an' de bone turkey, an' de pattydy four craws, dey won't keep till to-morrow, not even on ice."

"I suppose, then, that what cannot be consumed to-day must be lost. I see no remedy."

"An' whey we gwine to set de dinner table, w'en de dinin' room is all took up long ob de weddin' feas' spread out on dat yonder stension table? We ain't got time to take all de fings offen dat!"

"No, indeed, you have not. You had better lock up the dining room, just as it stands, to wait your mistress' orders, and set the table in the sitting room."

CHAPTER XXIV

THE FORSAKEN WIFE'S STORY

Having given her last instructions, Miss Meeke returned to the drawing room, where she found the new guest, extended at length on the blue, velvet sofa, with her chubby hands clasped under her head on one end and her stoutly booted feet elevated on the other. She was fast asleep and snoring sonorously.

Wynnette and Elva were standing gazing on her, with their faces full of guilty fear.

"What is the matter here?" inquired the governess.

"Oh, Miss Meeke," exclaimed Wynnette, "I'm afraid she's half seas over! I mean--I mean----"

"Elva, do you tell me what is all this--if you know," said the governess, seeing that Wynnette had broken down in her attempt to explain.

"Oh, Miss Meeke," said Elva, taking up the thread of the discourse, "when we finished playing the duet, she there on the sofa asked for a gla.s.s of wine, and Wynnette and I went ourselves to get it for her, and we went into the dining room, where the beautiful wedding table is set out and all the wines in cut-gla.s.s decanters on the sideboard. And--and--I am afraid--I know--we made a mistake and poured out a claret gla.s.s full of cognac brandy and brought it to her."

"And did she drink it?"

"Every drop! And she said it was proof brandy, and worth a bottle of common stuff! And then she talked a good deal, and then she lay down on the sofa, and went to sleep."

"I am very sorry. My dears, you should never meddle with the decanters.

You should have called Jacob, who would have known what to bring."

"But Jake was not in reach. He was away down in the stable yard, talking to a crowd of grooms and other men and boys. I saw him through the back windows, and I knew he was telling them all about what happened in the church. Oh, Miss Meeke, do you think she will die? Oh, just hear how she snores! Will she wake up in fits?" cried Elva, in fright.

"No, my dear," said the governess, looking attentively upon the woman.

"No; don't be alarmed. I think her condition is as much the effect of reaction from fatigue and excitement as of the brandy. Besides, she is wearing a tight dress, and lying in a cramped position, all of which obstructs her breathing. We must wake her up."

But at this moment Mr. Force and Leonidas came in, talking eagerly, and their abrupt entrance startled the woman out of her slumber. She sat up, rubbed her eyes, yawned loudly, asked where she was, and expressed a suspicion that she had been asleep.

Wynnette gave her Mrs. Force's bottle of sal ammonia that stood, by chance, on the sofa table.

Elva ran out and brought a gla.s.s of ice water.

She sniffed the salts strongly, with an:

"Ah! Ah-h! That's the sort!"

She drank the water audibly, and handed back the goblet, with a loudly drawn breath and an:

"Ah! Ah-h! Lord, Lord, what a day this has been!"

"I hope you have rested, ma'am," said Mr. Force, politely.

"Oh, yes; I'm all right now, thanky'! Where's your old 'oman and the gal?

I hope they have taken no harm from that there rumpus?"

"None whatever. Mrs. Force will be down in a few moments."

The lady entered the room while he was speaking.

She still wore the rich purple velvet dress that she had put on for the wedding. In fact, no one had made any change in their costumes, except to lay off bonnets, wraps and gloves.

Dinner was now announced.

Mr. Force gave the stranger his arm, and led the way to the dining room, followed by the other members of the party.

As the dinner went on, each member of the family felt more and more wonder that Col. Anglesea should ever have thought of marrying the woman who claimed him. Handsome, good-humored and sensible she certainly was; but--she talked and laughed loudly, called the master and mistress of the house the old man and the old 'oman; loudly praised the dishes she preferred, asking to be helped to them three or four times; ate with her knife, dipping the same knife into the saltcellar or the b.u.t.ter dish; and, indeed, she shocked good taste in many ways.

How, indeed, could Angus Anglesea ever have married such a woman?

It was not until after tea, when the family party were a.s.sembled in the drawing room, and Mrs. Force had sent away the two little girls, in charge of their governess, that the story of that marriage was told.

There were present Mr. and Mrs. Force, Leonidas and Mrs. Anglesea.

They were gathered around the open grate, where a glowing fire of sea coal burned.

"Yes," said the woman, putting her feet upon the low, bra.s.s fender and drawing up the edge of her dress, to toast her ankles, "this is just as good a time to tell you all about it as any other, now that the young uns are gone to roost. I hate to talk about the wickedness of the world before the young uns; they will find it out quick enough for themselves, poor things! Well, you want to know what in the name o' sense ever possessed me to marry that beat, don't you?" she inquired of Mrs. Force.

It was not exactly the way in which the lady had put the question of the marriage to herself, but she bowed her head in a.s.sent.

"Well, then, my late husband, Zeb Wright, made a big fortune in the mines.

Him and me was one of the very first that went out to the diggings. And he made his big pile by real hard hand work--and by none o' your blasting and crushing and lifting machines and things.

"And the year he died he had put away a hundred and twenty-three thousand, four hundred and fifty dollars in the Californy Miners' Saving Bank.

"And we might 'a' retired on that, but we was still in the prime o' life, nyther of us forty years old then--and I'm not now--and so he said we could go on for another ten year and make another hundred thousand, and then go back to the East and live offen it in grand style.

"But, Lord! who can tell what a day may bring forth, let alone ten year?

One autumn day he came home to me, in our shanty at Wild Cats' Gulch, with a hard chill, and in two hours, just as the turn of the cold fit into the hot one, he had a little spasm and went right off.