'
'Thank you, dear. Good-by.'
She turned and opened the door.
By a sort of instinctive tenderness not denied to any human creature,
Belle paused and looked back, and, hesitating a moment, returned; going
to where her sister was reclining, she kissed her affectionately,
without speaking one word.
Harriet's eyes suffused; she was quite unused to such a demonstration.
'My darling sister,' she whispered.
Belle was already out of the room. She bounded down the staircase,
passed hastily through the hall, and was soon walking rapidly along the
street.
One hour from that time she was on her way to New Jersey.
A clergyman had been provided in that State to perform the marriage
ceremony.
When the six o'clock New York train for Philadelphia passed through
Newark, it received on board Mr. and Mrs. Filippo Barbone, who were just
starting on their wedding excursion.
It was the commencement of the honeymoon.
* * * * *
No wonder, the next day, that Belle is late. We who are in the secret
will not be astonished; neither does Mrs. Meeker think it at all strange
that Belle should not return in the morning after the excitement of a
grand evening display such as Mrs. Caruthers will be sure to have.
The day wears on. As the dinner hour approaches, Mrs.
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