But the breakfast bell was ringing, and, putting them carefully back in the trunk and relocking it, she hastened down to the dining room.

There were a number of guests in the house, among them the Emburys of Magnolia Hall, and, naturally, the talk at the table ran principally upon the approaching marriage of Molly’s brother, Dr. Percival.

“I am much pleased,” she said; “Maud will make a dear little sister for me, and I hope will find me a good and kind one to her.  And if Sydney goes along she will be about as good as another.  Perhaps Bob and she will get up another match, and then she will be my sister.  I wish Bob could have come along with the rest of us.”

“Yes, I wish he could,” said Mrs. Travilla.  “He must take his turn at another time, leaving Dick to look after the patients.”

“I think Maud feels a trifle disappointed that she has no time to get up a grand wedding dress,” Molly ran on, “but the one she wore as Rosie’s bridesmaid is very pretty and becoming.  Still it is not white; and I heard her say that she had always been determined to be married in white, if she married at all.”

“Oh, well,” said Mr. Embury, “the getting married is the chief thing, and, after it is all over, it won’t matter much whether it was done in white or some other colour.  I presume most folks would think it better to be married even in black than not at all.”

“I think that depends very much upon what sort of husband one gets,” laughed Zoe.  “I got married without any bridal finery; but it was a very fortunate thing for me after all,” giving her husband a proudly affectionate glance.

“Yes,” he said with a smile, “and I wouldn’t exchange the wife I got in that way for the most exquisitely attired bride in Christendom.”

Mrs. Travilla kept her own counsel in regard to her plans for Maud’s relief, until breakfast and family worship were over; but then invited Molly to her boudoir, brought out the dress and veil she had been looking at, and disclosed her plan for Maud.

Molly was delighted.

“Oh, cousin, how good in you!” she cried.  “I think Maud will be wild with joy to be so nicely brought out of her difficulty.  For the dress is splendid, and, as you say, hardly out of the present fashion in its make-up.  And the veil is just too lovely for anything!  Fully as handsome as Rosie’s was, and I thought it the very handsomest I had ever seen.”

“Then I shall telephone at once to The Oaks,” Mrs. Travilla said, and, passing out and down to the hall below, she did so.  Calling for Maud, she asked her to come over to Ion at once as she wished to consult her on an important matter requiring prompt decision; but she would not detain her long.

Much wondering, Maud replied that she would be there in a few minutes; the carriage being at the door, and Mr. Dinsmore offering to drive her over immediately.

Mrs. Travilla gave orders to a servant that on Miss Dinsmore’s arrival she should be brought directly to her boudoir; Mr. Dinsmore might come also, if he wished; and presently both appeared.