TILL DEATH DOTH US PART
The small home wedding that Nance and Molly had originally planned grew
to be quite large. Little by little it seemed impossible to get married
without first one person and then the other. Andy had many friends at
Exmoor and Wellington; Dr. and Mrs. McLean knew half the country and had
a long list to be invited; Nance wanted the whole faculty and some of
the girls who were favorites of Molly's; Kent Brown arrived from New
York bringing with him Mr. Matsuki, frankly delighted to be included in
so honorable an assemblage.
"Surely they can't all of them sleep here," said Edwin to his wife as he
put on his wedding garments.
"They can, but they won't," she answered, laughing at his woeful
expression. "The house party breaks up after the ceremony. Do I look all
right?"
"Beautiful!"
"I mean my dress!"
"But I mean you! I don't know anything about your dress except that it
is blue as it should be."
"Can you find your collar buttons and is your tie all right?" asked the
anxious housewife as she accepted with very good grace the embrace Edwin
felt was necessary to his happiness just then.
"Yes! Everything O. K.! I am sorry for the bride because you are so
lovely, honey. Nance is a pretty girl but I am afraid nobody will see
her because of the matron of honor."
"Such a goose! Now I must go look after the flower girls. Katy has them
coralled in the nursery where they can't get dirty. They are the
sweetest looking creatures you ever saw in your life. Dodo looks like a
beautiful cabbage rose himself, his cheeks are so rosy. I wish Mother
could see him."
"Why doesn't she come on to the wedding?"
"Sue needs her in Kentucky. The only trouble about Mother is that there
is only one of her. I need her more than anything right now. If she were
here she would take hold of this wedding breakfast and I would know it
would come off right," sighed Molly, who, true to her character, had
planned to do enough for two persons. "Thank goodness, Judy is here!"
The ceremony was to be at twelve and then a wedding breakfast served.
This meant Molly was to be very busy. The girls were helping, but at the
same time they were more or less flustered trying to get themselves
dressed all in one room. They had determined to make this a gay light
wedding as to clothes at least. There was a feeling of excitement in
every breast, excitement mingled with sadness. Was not this the most
momentous day in the life of every true American? War was declared!
Perhaps had they realized just what war meant, those girls could not
have donned those gay, bright garments. Would they have had the courage
to wish their friend God-speed so cheerily? I believe they would. They
were of the stuff of the mothers of men. On that second of April, 1917,
every woman in the United States must have felt somewhat as Molly
Brown's college friends felt. It was a feeling of excitement, awe,
exhilaration and dread combined.
Nance was gowned in white with a wonderful lace veil Otoyo had brought
as her present. It was as filmy as the clouds that rest on Fujiyama, the
sacred mountain of Otoyo's country.
"Only suppose she had brought a tea basket like mine! What would that
have looked like on your head?" giggled Judy, who was in a strangely
hysterical state. She was one girl who very well knew what the war was
to mean. Had she not been on the outskirts of war in 1914 when she was
stranded in Paris? Had she not seen the soldiers marching off bidding
farewell to their nearest and dearest,--sometimes a final farewell? Kent
had spent all the time he could in training camps since they had been
opened to citizens of the United States, and now he was confident of
receiving a commission. Perhaps it would mean that her husband would be
in the trenches in a short time. She wanted him to want to go, was proud
of him for wanting to,--but oh, the agony of it all!
Almost time for the ceremony now! Molly made her final tour of
inspection. Edwin, Kent and Mr. Matsuki were safe in the den where they
eagerly discussed politics. Dr. and Mrs. McLean arrived, holding Andy
between them as though they might lose him before it was time.
"I meant to help you, Molly, child, but my hea-r-r-t is so joompy I am
afraid it will be best for me to compose meself," said the poor mother.
"Don't let Andy know!"
Molly kissed the dear lady and asked Katherine to stay near her.
Katherine's dressing was always a simple matter, as her gowns consisted
of shirt-waists and skirts in various materials to suit various
occasions. She declared she could dress in the dark and look just as
well as though she had had cheval glasses and a blaze of light.
The other girls were ready and came down to the parlors to help receive
the guests. Nance was lovely and looked as fresh and sweet as a white
violet as she sat in her room sedately awaiting the hour. A visit to the
nursery disclosed the children piously standing with backs to the window
and arms held well away from their fluffy skirts, as charming flower
girls as one could find.
"I'm so 'appee! I'm so 'appee! I'm Mildred's Japanese dollee! She's my
kick-up dollee!" sang the little Cho-Cho-San. "All I want is bald spot,
and all she wants is stick up hair!"
"Ain't we your little comforts, Muvver?" asked Mildred.
"Indeed you are, my darling! Now when Judy calls, you come running so
you can go down the stairs in front of Aunt Nance. Judy will have your
wreaths all ready. Where is Katy?"
"She's peeking at the comply."
"Well, you kiddies be good and don't get your dresses mussed. It is
almost time now. Don't wake Dodo." Of course Dodo had gone to sleep,
since there was nothing more important on hand just then. Molly hurried
off to the kitchen to see that the wedding breakfast was coming on as
she had planned. Mrs. Murphy had hobbled up to help Kizzie, and Mrs.
McLean had sent over her two maids.
"All they need is a boss," sighed poor Molly. "If I only could be two
places at one time!"
But whose familiar figure was that seen through the scullery door? The
maids were all in a broad grin and Kizzie, as she expressed it, "was
fittin' to bust."
"Mother! Mother! Where on earth did you come from?" and Molly had that
dear lady clasped in her arms. "What are you doing in the back? Come on
and hurry and get dressed! It is almost time!" Molly felt like little
Cho-Cho when she cried out: "I'm so 'appee! I'm so 'appee!"
"I just this minute arrived and have no idea of dressing!" cried that
dear lady when she could speak.
"Of course you needn't dress! You are lovely as you are--your hair is a
bit mussed--and----"
"You mussed it but it will do very well for the part I am to play. I
have no idea of appearing. I mean to serve this breakfast."
"But, Mother, I couldn't let you!"
"Nonsense! That is what I hurried on for. Why, child, when I realized
that you were having a house party and a wedding and going to serve a
great breakfast, I simply jumped on the train with a hand-bag and flew
to you. You always have behaved as though you were triplets. Now run
along and don't tell a soul I am here. I can be honored later on; now I
want a big apron and room to operate. Kizzie has already told me what
the breakfast is to be and you need not think about it. Run along!"
"Well, one more hug and I am gone. Aren't you even going to peek at the
comply, as Mildred says?"
"Oh, I'll see the ceremony, never fear; but fly, Molly! The guests are
coming."
Molly felt as though she really could fly. Her mother's arrival had
relieved her of all fear about the wedding breakfast. It would be
obliged to go off without a hitch now. Dear, dear Mother! How like her
to come quietly slipping in the back way just in the nick of time!
One could have heard a pin drop in the old square house on the campus as
the first strains of the wedding march arose and the rustle of skirts on
the stairway announced the approach of the wedding procession. Andy was
shaking and shivering in the hall, tightly clutching his father's arm.
He had declared that Dr. McLean must be his best man and would hear of
no other. Of course he was just as scared as the groom always is, at
least, all proper grooms.
At Judy's signal the little flower girls came dancing from the nursery,
their fluffy skirts flying. The wreaths and garlands were handed them
and they marched down the stairs feeling much more important than Nance
herself.
"Heavens!" thought Molly as she followed them with Nance, "what on
earth is the matter with Mildred's hair?" It was standing up in a most
peculiar way. Instead of the curls that Katy had so carefully made, her
ringlets had been brushed out and Molly realized that at least four
inches of her daughter's hair had been cut off. "And Cho-Cho-San! What
has happened to her?" In the middle of the child's head was a bare spot
at least three inches in diameter. It looked as though it had been
shaved.
Whatever the matter was, it affected the flower girls not in the least.
With many tosses of those shorn heads they marched into the parlor,
scattering their posies as they had been told. When Otoyo saw the bald
spot on the head of her offspring she almost fainted and had to hold on
to the ready arm of honorable husband. Cho-Cho-San had clipped Mildred's
hair to make it stand up like a kick-up dolly, and Mildred had stolen
her father's safety razor and converted her little friend into a
veritable Japanese dolly.
Nothing but the solemnity of the occasion kept Molly from hysterics. The
little wretches must have got busy after she made her visit to the
nursery. Evidently they were doing what Mildred called "playing true."
Cho-Cho was a Japanese dolly and Mildred was a kick-up. The little
visitor did look exactly like one of those fascinating Japanese dolls,
and Molly could but smile in spite of her distress. She was afraid to
catch Judy's eye as she stepped back to let Andy take his place by
Nance's side.
Never had the wedding ceremony seemed so impressive as on that second of
April. Every mind was filled with the importance of the step that the
country was taking, and with the prayer that Andy and Nance would
prosper, was breathed the thought that the United States might come out
victorious.
Nance was to go with Andy's unit in the capacity of interpreter. She was
not a brilliant French scholar but was thorough in her knowledge of that
as of everything she had undertaken. She frankly declared that she had
been separated from Andy long enough and she intended to follow him to
the ends of the earth if need be. It was that wonderful fact that made
Andy's "I will!" so strong and clear. His tremblings left him and he
stood by his dear girl like the soldier of the Red Cross that he was.
Nothing was impossible or too hard if Nance was to be with him.
Mrs. McLean's good, honest face was like an angel's as she gazed on
her new daughter-in-law. No jealousy was depicted there--nothing but
adoration, gratitude that the girl was to make her Andy happy. Poor Dr.
McLean was sobbing like a baby and his good wife had to put her arms
around him to comfort him.
All over! "Whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder." Andy
clasped his Nance with the look of: "I dare anyone to try!"
Otoyo and Molly held a whispered consultation over their imaginative
offspring and decided that nothing was to be said or done to the
culprits on that day of days,--the reckoning must be deferred.
Those infants were greatly astonished, somewhat relieved and secretly
chagrined that their prank was not noticed. They had expected to be even
more important than the bride in their roles of Japanese and kick-up
dolls.
"I weckon nobody don't love us 'nough to spank us even," pouted Mildred.
"Japanese babee gets not spank-ed--but honorable mother frowns on
Cho-Cho when she loves her most after naughtiness--but now--but now--she
smiles, but not with love," was the wail of the companion in crime and
misery.
The efficient helmsman in the kitchen steered the wedding breakfast to
safety. The affair went off with such expedition that the housekeepers
present marveled at Molly's cleverness.
"She must have trained her servants wonderfully well," whispered one.
"I remember the joke they got off on Molly in college," laughed Miss
Walker. "It was that she came of a family of famous cooks."
"It is not only the cooking now," said Mrs. Fern, Edwin's cousin and the
mother of the perfect Alice. "It is the way it is served and the
orderliness of the waitresses. I wonder that Molly can be with her
guests while it is being done unless she has had a caterer come up from
New York. I simply have to be in the pantry myself when my daughters
entertain on a large scale. That is, unless I can hire someone to come
take charge, and Wellington does not boast such a person. Alice is very
particular but not willing to do much herself,--not able, in fact," she
added lamely, a little afraid of having criticized her perfect daughter
in public.
Mrs. Fern was very fond of Molly and admired her greatly in spite of
the fact that she could not help bearing her a tiny secret grudge for
marrying Edwin Green. That good lady had in her heart of hearts hoped
that Alice was to bear off the professional prize. Perfect persons are
not always very pleasant to live with and Alice Fern was no exception to
the rule. Mrs. Fern wished no harm to Edwin but she would have been glad
to shift her burden of perfectness to other shoulders.
"We are just asking ourselves how you do it, my dear," she said as Molly
came up to see that all was going well with her guests.
"Do it! I'll tell you a secret that I was not to divulge but I am simply
bursting with it: Mother is in the pantry! She came in the back way,
without my even knowing she had left Kentucky, and now she is directing
operations. She refuses to appear until the party is over."
"Ah, that is the reason for that glow in your eyes!" exclaimed Miss
Walker. "I used to say when you were a college girl that I could tell by
your expression when the western mail had brought you a letter from
Kentucky."
"I didn't know it showed so," blushed Molly, "but it does make me feel
warm all over when I know my mother is near."