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Page 12
All the arrangements, kept studiously simple, were beautifully
systematized; and their very simplicity made them easy to carry out. The
guest chambers were completely ready, one or two extra helpers were
engaged that the servants might not be overworked, the order of every meal
for the three busiest days was settled and written down. Each of the
younger sisters had some special charge committed to her. Elsie was to
wait on Cousin Helen, and see that she and her nurse had everything they
wanted. Clover was to care for the two Roses; Johnnie to oversee the table
arrangements, and make sure that all was right in that direction. Dear
little Amy was indefatigable as a doer of errands, and her quick feet were
at everybody's service to "save steps." Cecy arrived, and haunted the
house all day long, anxious to be of use to somebody; Mrs. Ashe put her
time at their disposal; there was such a superabundance of helpers, in
fact, that no one could feel over taxed. And Katy, while still serving as
main spring to the whole, had plenty of time to write her notes, open her
wedding presents, and enjoy her friends in a leisurely, unfatigued fashion
which was a standing wonderment to Cecy, whose own wedding had been of the
onerous sort, and had worn her to skin and bone.
"I am only just beginning to recover from it now," she remarked
plaintively, "and there you sit, Katy, looking as fresh as a rose; not
tired a bit, and never seeming to have anything on your mind. I can't
think how you do it. I never was at a wedding before where everybody was
not perfectly worn out."
"You never were at such a simple wedding before," explained Katy. "I'm not
ambitious, you see. I want to keep things pretty much as they are every
day, only with a little more of everything because of there being more
people to provide for. If I were attempting to make it a beautiful,
picturesque wedding, we should get as tired as anybody, I have no doubt."
Katy's gifts were numerous enough to satisfy even Clover, and comprised
all manner of things, from a silver tray which came, with a rather stiff
note, from Mrs. Page and Lilly, to Mary's new flour-scoop, Debby's sifter,
and a bottle of home-made hair tonic from an old woman in the "County
Home." Each of the brothers and sisters had made her something, Katy
having expressed a preference for presents of home manufacture. Mrs. Ashe
gave her a beautiful sapphire ring, and Cecy Hall--as they still called
her inadvertently half the time--an elaborate sofa-pillow embroidered by
herself. Katy liked all her gifts, both large and small, both for what
they were and for what they meant, and took a good healthy, hearty
satisfaction in the fact that so many people cared for her, and had worked
to give her a pleasure.
Cousin Helen was the first guest to arrive, five days before the wedding.
When Dr. Carr, who had gone to Buffalo to meet and escort her down, lifted
her from the carriage and carried her indoors, all of them could easily
have fancied that it was the first visit happening over again, for she
looked exactly as she did then, and scarcely a day older. She happened to
have on a soft gray travelling dress too, much like that which she wore on
the previous occasion, which made the illusion more complete.
But there was no illusion to Cousin Helen herself. Everything to her
seemed changed and quite different. The ten years which had passed so
lightly over her head had made a vast alteration in the cousins whom she
remembered as children. The older ones were grown up, the younger ones in
a fair way to be so; even Phil, who had been in white frocks with curls
falling over his shoulders at the time of her former visit to Burnet, was
now fifteen and as tall as his father. He was very slight in build, and
looked delicate, she thought; but Katy assured her that he was perfectly
well, and thin only because he had outgrown his strength.
It was one of the delightful results of Katy's "forehandedness" that she
could command time during those next two days to thoroughly enjoy Cousin
Helen. She sat beside her sofa for hours at a time, holding her hand and
talking with a freedom of confidence such as she could have shown to no
one else, except perhaps to Clover. She had the feeling that in so doing
she was rendering account to a sort of visible conscience of all the
events, the mistakes, the successes, the glad and the sorry of the long
interval that had passed since they met. It was a pleasure and relief to
her; and to Cousin Helen the recital was of equal interest, for though she
knew the main facts by letter, there was a satisfaction in collecting the
little details which seldom get fully put into letters.
One subject only Katy touched rather guardedly; and that was Ned. She was
so desirous that her cousin should approve of him, and so anxious not to
raise her expectations and have her disappointed, that she would not half
say how very nice she herself thought him to be. But Cousin Helen could
"read between the lines," and out of Katy's very reserve she constructed
an idea of Ned which satisfied her pretty well.
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