"Benedict the married man."
--_Shakspeare_.
Violet's wedding-day was drawing near and Edward had not been heard from,
still they hoped he was on his way home and would yet arrive in season.
Each day they looked for a telegram saying what train would bring him to
their city, but none came.
Edward had not written because a letter would travel no faster than
themselves, and did not telegraph because so little could be said in that
way. All things considered, it seemed as well to take his mother and the
rest entirely by surprise.
He had no fear that his little wife would meet with other than a kind
reception, astounded as doubtless they would be to learn that he had one.
But he would have the surprise come upon them all at home, where no
stranger eye would witness the meeting; therefore sent no warning of his
coming lest some one of them should meet him at the depôt.
Yet the first object that met his eye on turning about from assisting Zoe
to alight from the train, was the Ion family carriage, with Solon standing
at the horses' heads.
"Ki! Marse Ed'ard, you's here sho nuff!" cried the man, grinning with
satisfaction.
"Yes, Solon," Edward said, shaking hands with him. "Who came in with you?"
"Nobody, sah. You wasn't spected particular, kase you didn't send no word.
But Miss Elsie tole me fotch de kerridge anyhow, an' mebbe you mout be
here."
"So I am, Solon, and my wife with me," presenting Zoe, who timidly held
out her little gloved hand.
Solon took it respectfully, gazing at her in wide-eyed and open-mouthed
wonder. "Ki! Marse Ed'ard, you don' say you's ben an' gwine an' got
married! Why dere's weddin's an' weddin's in de family!"
"So it seems, Solon," laughed Edward, putting Zoe into the carriage and
taking his place beside her, "but as I am older than Miss Vi, my turn
should come before hers. All well at Ion?"
"Yes, sah, an' mighty busy wid de necessary preparations for Miss Wilet's
weddin'."
"What an elegant, comfortable, easy-rolling carriage!" remarked Zoe,
leaning back against the cushions, "it's a pleasant change from the cars."
"I am glad you find it so, dear," Edward responded, gazing upon her with
fond, admiring eyes.
"Yes, but--O Edward, how will I be received?" she cried, creeping closer
to him and leaning her head on his shoulder. "I can hardly help wishing I
could just be alone with you always."
"Don't be afraid, dearest," he said, putting his arm round her and kissing
her tenderly again and again. "When you know them all you will be very far
from wishing that."
The whole family were gathered upon the veranda when the carriage drove
up. As it stopped, the door was thrown open, and Edward sprang out. There
was a general exclamation, of surprise and delight, a simultaneous
springing forward to give him an affectionate, joyous greeting; then a
wondering murmur and exchange of inquiring glances, as he turned to hand
out a slight girlish figure, and drawing her hand within his arm, came up
the veranda steps.
Elsie stood nearest of all the waiting group, heart and eyes full of
joyous emotion at sight of the handsome face and manly form so like his
father's.
"Darling mother!" he exclaimed, throwing his free arm about her and giving
her an ardent kiss. Then drawing forward the blushing, trembling Zoe. "My
little wife, mother dear you will love her now for my sake, and soon for
her own. She is all ours--alone in the world but for us."
Before the last words had left his lips Zoe felt herself folded in a
tender embrace, while the sweetest of voices said, "Dear child! you are
alone no longer. I will be a true mother to you--my Edward's wife--and you
shall be one of my dear daughters."
A gentle, loving kiss accompanied the words, and all Zoe's fears were put
to flight; glad tears rained down her cheeks as she clung about the neck
of her new-found mother.
"Oh, I love you already," she sobbed.
Mrs. Dinsmore next embraced the little bride with a kind, "Welcome to Ion,
my dear."
Then Mr. Dinsmore took her in his arms, saying, with a kiss and a look of
keen but kindly scrutiny into the blushing face, "Edward has given us a
surprise, but a very pretty and pleasant-looking one. I am your grandpa,
my dear."
"Oh, I am glad! I never had a grandpa before. But you hardly look old
enough, sir," she said, smiling, while the blush deepened on her cheek.
The others crowded round; each had a kiss and kind word of welcome for her
as well as for Edward.
Then the news of the arrival having spread through the house, the servants
came flocking about them, eager to see and shake hands with "Marse Ed'ard"
and his bride.
Zoe went through it all with easy grace, but Elsie noted that her cheek
was paling and her figure drooping with weariness.
"She is tired, Edward; we will take her to your apartments, where she can
lie down and rest," she said. "All this excitement is very trying after
her long and fatiguing journey. You both should have some refreshment too.
What shall it be?"
"Thank you, mamma; I will consult her when I get her up there, then ring
and order it," Edward said, putting his arm round Zoe's waist and half
carrying her up the stairs, his mother leading the way.
"There, Zoe, what think you of your husband's bachelor quarters?" he asked
gayly, as he deposited her in an easy-chair, took off her hat, and stood
looking fondly down at her, Elsie on the other side, looking at her too
with affectionate interest.
"Oh, lovely!" cried Zoe, glancing about upon her luxurious surroundings.
"I am sure I shall be very happy here with you, Edward," with a fond look
up into his face; then turning toward Elsie, she added timidly, "and this
sweet mother."
"That is right, dear child," Elsie said, bending down to kiss her again,
"call me mother or mamma, as Edward does, and never doubt your welcome to
my heart and home. Now I shall leave you to rest, and Edward must see that
all your wants are supplied."
"O Edward, how sweet, how dear, and how beautiful she is!" cried Zoe, as
the door closed on her mother-in-law.
"Just as I told you, love," he said, caressing her. "She takes you to her
heart and home without even waiting to inquire how I came to marry in
haste without her knowledge or approval."
"Or asking who I am or where I came from. But you will tell her everything
as soon as you can?"
"Yes; I shall wait only long enough to see you eat something and lying
down for a nap, so that you will not miss me while I have my talk with
her."
Zoe, in this her first appearance among them, had produced a favorable
impression upon all her new relatives; but the uppermost feeling with
each, from the grandfather down, was one of profound astonishment that
Edward had taken so serious a step without consulting those to whom he had
hitherto yielded a respectful and loving obedience.
Elsie could not fail to be pained to find her dearly loved father and
herself so treated by one of her cherished darlings, yet tried to put the
feeling aside and suspend her judgment until Edward had been given an
opportunity to explain.
The younger children gathered about her, with eager questioning as she
rejoined them in the veranda.
"I can tell you nothing yet, dears," she answered in her accustomed sweet
and gentle tones, "but no doubt we shall know all about it soon. I think
she is a dear little girl whom we shall all find it easy to love. We will
do all we can to make her happy and at home among us, shall we not?"
"Yes, mamma, yes indeed!" they all said.
Mr. Dinsmore rose, and motioning to his wife and daughter to follow him
went to the library.
Elsie read grave displeasure in his countenance before he opened his lips.
"Dear papa, do not be angry with my boy," she said pleadingly, going to
him where he stood, and putting her arms about his neck. "Shall we not
wait until we have heard his story?"
"I shall try to suspend my judgment for your sake, daughter," Mr. Dinsmore
answered, stroking her hair caressingly, "but I cannot help feeling that
Edward seems to have strangely failed in the loving respect and obedience
he should have shown to such a mother as his. He has taken very prompt
advantage of his arrival at his majority."
"Yet perhaps with good reason, papa," she returned, still beseechingly,
her eyes filling with tears.
"We will not condemn him unheard," he answered, his tones softening, "and
if he has made a mistake by reason of failing to seek the advice and
approval of those who so truly desire his happiness, it is he himself who
must be the greatest sufferer thereby."
"Yes," she returned with a sigh, "even a mother's love is powerless to
save her children from the consequences of their own follies and sins."
Edward, scarcely less desirous to make his explanation than his mother was
to hear it, hastened in search of her the moment he had seen Zoe
comfortably established upon a sofa in his dressing-room.
He found her in the library with his grandfather evidently awaiting his
coming. They were seated together upon a sofa.
"Dearest mother," Edward said, dropping upon his knees by her side and
clasping her in his arms, "how can I ever thank you enough for your
kindness this day to me and my darling! I fear I must seem to you and
grandpa an ungrateful wretch; but when you know all, you will not, I
trust, blame me quite so severely."
"We are not blaming you, my dear boy, we are waiting to hear first what
you have to say for yourself," Elsie answered, laying her hand fondly upon
his head. "Sit here by my side while you tell it," she added, making room
for him on the sofa.
He made his story brief, yet kept nothing back.
His hearers were deeply moved as he repeated what Mr. Love had told him of
the lonely and forlorn condition in which he must leave his petted only
child, and went on to describe the hasty marriage and the death scene, so
immediately following. Their kind hearts yearned over the little orphaned
bride, and they exonerated Edward from all blame for the part he acted in
the short, sad drama.
"Cherish her tenderly, my dear boy," his mother said, with tears in her
soft eyes, "you are all, everything to her, and must never let her want
for love or tenderest care."
"Mother," he answered in moved tones, "I shall try to be to my little wife
just the husband my father was to you."
"That is all any one could ask, my son," she returned, the tears coursing
down her cheeks.
"Do not expect too much of her, Edward," Mr. Dinsmore said. "She is a
mere child, a petted and spoiled one, I presume, from what you have told
us, and if she should prove wayward and at times unreasonable, be very
patient and forbearing with her."
"I trust I shall, grandpa," he answered. "I cannot expect her to be quite
the woman she would have made under my mother's training; but she is young
enough to profit by mamma's sweet teachings and example even yet. I find
her very docile and teachable, very affectionate, and desirous to be and
do all I would have her."
Zoe came down for the evening simply but tastefully attired in white,
looking very sweet and fair. She was evidently disposed to be on friendly
terms with her new relatives, yet clung with a pretty sort of shyness to
her young husband, who perceived it with delight, regarding her ever and
anon with fond, admiring eyes.
It excited no jealousy in mother or sisters. Such an emotion was quite
foreign to Elsie's nature and found small place in the heart of any one of
her children.
Violet, spite of the near approach of her own nuptials, was sufficiently
at leisure from herself to give time and thought to this new sister,
making her feel that she was so esteemed, and winning for herself a large
place in Zoe's heart.
Indeed all exerted themselves to make Zoe fully aware that they considered
her quite one of the family. That very evening she was taken with Edward
to Vi's room to look at the trousseau, told of all the arrangements for
the wedding and the summer sojourn at the North, and made the recipient of
many handsome presents from Mr. and Mrs. Dinsmore, Elsie, and Violet.
But for her recent sad bereavement she would have been a very happy little
woman indeed. As it was she was bright and cheerful when with the family,
but had occasional paroxysms of grief when alone with Edward, in which she
wept bitterly upon his breast, he soothing her with tenderest caresses and
words of endearment.
Violet's wedding was strictly private, only near relatives being present;
but in accordance with the wishes of the whole family, she was richly
attired in white silk, orange blossoms, and costly bridal veil.
Zoe, leaning on Edward's arm, watched her through the ceremony with
admiring eyes, more than half regretting that the haste of her own
marriage had precluded the possibility of so rich and becoming a bridal
dress for herself--a thought which she afterward expressed to Edward in
the privacy of their own apartments. "Never mind, my sweet," he said,
holding her close to his heart "I couldn't love you any better if you had
given yourself to me in the grandest of wedding-dresses."
"How nice in you to say that!" she exclaimed, laying her head on his
breast and gazing fondly up into his face. "Didn't Captain Raymond look
handsome in his uniform?"
"Yes, indeed; don't you think I have as much reason to envy his appearance
as a groom as you Vi's as a bride?"
"No, indeed!" she cried indignantly, "he's not half so nice as you are! I
wouldn't exchange with her for all the world!"
"Thank you; that's a very high compliment, I think; for I greatly admire
my new brother-in-law," Edward said, with a gleeful laugh, and repeating
his caresses.