“It certainly could be slated at police headquarters as ‘entering’,” calmly said a stout man, taking in every detail of the boys’ costumes. “Disturbing the peace and several other things.”
“With intent to do malicious mischief,” the man who spoke balanced himself on his heels and swung a chrysanthemum to and fro by the stem.
The minister was walking uneasily about. The bride was on a sofa where she had been lifted to come out of her faint.
In a burst of impatience Ted whispered to Mabel, whom, for some reason, he did not appear at all surprised to see there: “Where’s Dorothy?”
Mabel, scared and perplexed, shook her head solemnly. But, as if in answer to the question, Dorothy rushed into the room, her cheeks aglow, her hair flying wildly about, and behind her walked Dr. Gray.
Dr. Gray’s kindly smile beamed on the little bride, and he soon brought her around. Sitting up, she burst into a peal of merry laughter.
“What, pray tell me, are they?” she demanded, pointing at the boys. She was still white, but her eyes danced, and her small white teeth gleamed between red lips.
“My cousins,” bravely answered Dorothy. Everyone laughed, and the boys, in evident relief, shouted.
“You’ve come to my wedding!” exclaimed the bride.
“Kind of ’em; wasn’t it?” said the bridegroom, sneeringly.
“But we’re going now,” quickly replied Dorothy, with great dignity.
“Why?” asked the bride with wide open eyes. “Since you are not really spooky creatures, stay for the dancing.”
“We’re terribly thankful you are not ghosts,” chirped a fluffy bridesmaid.
“You see if you had really been spooks,” laughed the bride, “everyone would have shrieked at me that horrible phrase, ‘I told you so,’ because you know I insisted upon being married in this house, just to defy superstition.”
“Just think what you’ve saved us!” said the tall, dark-haired girl.
“Of course if it will be any accommodation,” awkwardly put in Ned, “we’ll dance.” He thought he had said the perfectly polite thing.
“He’s going to dance for us!” cried the tall girl, to the others in the hall, and everyone crowded in.
An hour later, trudging home in the bright moonlight, Dorothy sighed: “Weren’t they wonderful!”
“It was decent of them to let us stay and have such fun,” commented Ned.