" Poor Dora was silenced. My
lady was peremptory and decisive, as usual. When Dora had duly repented
of her silly suggestion, Aunt Olympia's natural curiosity to hear
everything prevailed over her momentary caprice of ill-humor, and she
was permitted to recite the wedding in all its details--even to Mrs.
Musgrave's silk gown and the pretty little bridesmaids' dresses. The
bridegroom only she prudently omitted, and was sarcastically rebuked for
the omission by and by with the query, "And the bridegroom was nowhere,
then?"
The bells broke out several times in the course of the day, and the
event served for a week's talk after it was over. The projected
yacht-voyage had been given up, and the young people travelled in all
simplicity, with very little baggage and no attendant except Mrs. Betts.
They went through Normandy until they came to Bayeux, where Madame
Fournier was spending the long vacation at the house of her brother the
canon, as her custom was. In the twilight of a hot autumnal evening they
went to call upon her. Lancelot's watering-can had diffused its final
shower, and the oleanders and pomegranates, grateful for the refreshing
coolness, were giving out their most delicious odors. The canon and
madame were sipping their _cafe noir_ after dinner, seated in the
verandah towards the garden, and Madame Babette, the toil of the day
over, was dozing and reposing under the bowery sweet clematis at the end
by her own domain.
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