Had she been one of the great company of almost soulless women--if I may use such strong language--who pass, yearly, through legal forms into the mere semblance of a marriage, I might have looked on with indifference, for then, the realization would, in all probability, be equal to the promise.

But Delia Floyd was of a different spiritual organization.

She had higher capabilities and nobler aspirations; and if the one found no true sphere of development, while the other was doomed to beat its wings vainly amid the lower atmospheres of life, was happiness in the case even a possibility?
Among the guests was Wallingford.

It was six months, almost to a day, since the dearest hope in life he had ever cherished went suddenly out, and left him, for a season, in the darkness of despair.

I did not expect to see him on this occasion; and there was another, I think, who as little anticipated his presence--I mean the bride.