"Then give it to me, please;" and almost snatching it from her mother's
hand, Gertrude tore it open, and glanced hastily over its contents.
"Yes, I'll see him! he'll be here directly; and I must look my best!" she
exclaimed, jumping up and beginning to take down her crimps.
"See him? Gertrude, are you mad? Your father will never allow it."
"Mr. Hogg, mother."
"Oh!"
They exchanged glances and smiles. Mrs. Ross hurried down to breakfast,
not to keep her husband waiting, and Gertrude presently followed in
handsome morning toilet, and in apparently quite gay spirits; a trifle
pale, but only enough so to make her interesting, her mother said.
Mr. Ross and Philip, Jr., had already gone away to their place of
business, Sophie and the younger boys to school, and only Mrs. Ross and
Kate were left, the latter of whom had little to say, but regarded her
sister with a sort of contemptuous pity.
Gertrude had scarcely finished her meal, when the door-bell rang, and she
was summoned to the drawing-room to receive her visitor.
The wedding came off at the appointed time. There was a change of
bridegrooms, that was all; and few could decide whether the invitations
had been a ruse, so far as he was concerned--or if that were not so, how
the change had been brought about.
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