"Let's never get married at the same time any more, Ann," groaned Bess as Annette tried to put us both to bed that night before we fell dead on her hands.
"Don't speak to me!" was my answer as nearly as I can remember.
"I'll be glad to get Bess away from your influence," raged Owen at me the next day when I very nearly stepped on one of the little chickens that he was having run in and out from the conservatory.
"You'll want to bring her back in a week if both your tempers don't improve," was my cutting reply as this time I lifted another of his small pets with the toe of my slipper and literally flung it across the room.
"Great guns!" exploded Owen, as he retreated into the conservatory and shut the door.
The next night was the sixth of June and the night of my wedding eve. All Bess's bridesmaids and groomsmen were dining with her to rehearse her wedding and to have a sort of farewell bat with Matthew and me.
"What about your and Ann's wedding to Matthew, Miss Polly?" I heard Cale Johnson ask Polly as she and Matthew were untangling a bolt of wide, white-satin ribbon that I had tangled. "All the show to be of rustics?"
"Nobody but Polly is going to stand by us," said Matthew, looking cautiously around to see if I was listening. "Ann doesn't believe in making much fuss over a wedding."
"I didn't know I was to be in it until Miss Bess took me to be fitted--oh, it is a dream of a dress, isn't it, Mr. Matthew?" said Polly, with her enthusiasm also tempered by a glance in my direction.
"It sure is," answered Matthew, with the greatest approval, as he regarded Polly with parental pride.
"Well, I'm glad I'm invited to see it," said Cale as he glanced at Polly tenderly. "I mean to be at the wedding, Matt," he added politely. Cale was to be best man with Polly as maid of honor at Bess's wedding, and he had been standing and sitting close at Polly's side for more than ten days.
"Let's try it all over again, everybody," called Bess's wearied voice, interrupting Polly's enthusiastic description of ruffles.
The wedding day was a nightmare. Annette and the housemaid and Bess and a girl from Madame Felicia's packed up three trunks full of my clothes and sent them all to the station.
"I wish I never had to see them again," I said viciously under my breath as the expressmen carried out the last trunk.