"Not another word!" she snapped, and I drew a long breath and stopped for a few minutes to get ready for the next attack. After a pause, "The thirty-first's the day, you know," I observed casually. Aunt blinked.
"The wedding day," piped up my brother. "Our Polly's!"
"How about Boris?" she inquired. "You are a little fool not to become a princess."
I ignored this remark and continued, "Ricci is going to sing and St. Laurent will be at the organ and--" I found I was addressing an empty chair, for my relative had stalked off once more.
The next opportunity another bolt was shot at her. "My wedding dress is ordered, and it's a beauty! The veil will be four yards--"
"Porter!" shouted Aunt, and as that coffee-colored individual stopped short, she started him on a long explanation of the route ahead of us, while I withdrew, baffled and brooding, to re-read your letters. How am I going to bring my guardian around finally?
Later I began again, "I think the reception at the house after the ceremony should not be very large," this apropos of nothing, "for by the thirty-first a good many people will have left town, though, of course they'd run up for a wedding like ours,--"
"Are you crazy?" she demanded. "We shan't be home till the twenty-eighth, and you can't get your invitations engraved in time, let alone sending them out."
Checkers and Sybil drew near. "They're all done and sent!" we chorused.
"I mailed part of them!" proclaimed my brother.
"The day we left New York, so you see, you really can't do anything about it," Checkers continued politely.
Aunt turned purple. "I don't believe a word of it, and I shall not countenance it," whereupon she stamped her foot. And that's the situation now, dear.
Behold me, dear, on my native soil, hungrily awaiting a love letter from you, even though I am a little ahead of my schedule. I didn't cable, in order to surprise you, but nevertheless I hoped you might guess the steamer from my letters. Father was on hand to greet me but I was disappointed when I dashed up the gang plank not to see you on the wharf and later to learn from your butler at the house you were still hundreds of miles away. Then I came on to Washington at once to report. All, everybody--customs-officers, collectors, bank-cashiers, down to the smallest clerk in the Department, when I told them the news, congratulated me heartily and added good wishes till I was as happy as I could possibly be without you.