This was on Wednesday.  On Thursday came a letter from Aunt Ella.  It contained the most kindly congratulations, and a neat little wedding present of a check for fifty thousand dollars.  She wrote further that she was lonesome and wanted somebody to read to her, and talk to her, and sing to her.  If the book was done, would not Miss Very come to spend the remainder of the season with her, and if Mr. Ernst was there could he not spare time to escort Miss Very.

That same evening Leopold received a letter from Mr. Morton.  It simply read, “Blennerhassett accepted; will be put in type at once and issued by the first of November, perhaps sooner.”

The next morning Leopold and Rosa started for Old Orchard, and the lovers were left alone to pass their honeymoon, with the blue sea about them, the blue sky above them, and a love within their hearts which grew stronger day by day.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

Linda’s birthright.

For Quincy and Alice, day after day, and week after week, found them in a state of complete happiness.  The little island floating in the azure sea was their world, and for the time, no thought of any other intruded upon their delightful Eden.  It seemed to Quincy all a blissful dream of love, and everything he looked upon was wreathed in flowers and golden sunshine.

But lotus land is not so far distant from the abodes of mortal man but that his emissaries may reach it.  The first jarring note in the sweet harmony of their married life came in the form of a letter from Dr. Culver, who wrote to remind Quincy that it would soon be time to start in ploughing the political field.  Quincy’s reply was brief and to the point.

“My dear Culver:—­I will see you in Boston on the tenth of September.  Q.A.S.”

When Aunt Ella learned that her nephew was going to town, she made hurried preparations for her departure from Old Orchard, and wrote to him insisting that he and Alice should come and stay with her.  This invitation they gladly accepted, Quincy arranging in his mind to explain matters to his family by saying that, as he had now entered politics and would necessarily have a great many callers to entertain, he thought it best to make his headquarters with Aunt Ella until the campaign was over.

Accordingly, the ninth of September saw them located at Mt Vernon Street.  On the very day of their arrival, proof of the remaining stories and a large instalment of Blennerhassett reached them, with a note from Ernst: 

“Please rush.  Press is waiting.”

Miss Very’s assistance was now absolutely necessary, but when Quincy asked Leopold for her address, he was surprised at the reply he received.

“I haven’t seen her,” said Leopold, “since we came back from Old Orchard together.  In fact, since that time, our relations, for some reason or other, have undergone a great change.  However, I think I can help you out.  I don’t believe in keeping a good friend like you, Quincy, in suspense, so I will tell you the truth.  I am married.  My wife is fully as competent to assist Mrs. Sawyer as Miss Very would have been.  She is in the library now at work.  I will go and ask her.”