Mrs.Bolton had suggested that it should be put off till the spring;--but he had gloomily replied that as the thing had to be done, the sooner it was done the better.
It had been settled almost from the first that the marriage festival should be held, not at Puritan Grange, but at The Nurseries; and gradually it came to be understood that Mrs.Bolton herself would not be present, either at the church or at the breakfast.

It was in vain that Hester implored her mother to yield to her in something, to stand with her at any rate on the steps before the altar.

'Would you wish me to go and lie before my God ?' said the unhappy woman.

'When I would give all that I have in the world except my soul,--my life, my name, even my child herself, to prevent this, am I to go and smile and be congratulated, and to look as though I were happy ?' There was, therefore, very much unhappiness at the Grange, and an absence of all triumph even at The Nurseries.

At the old bank-house in the town where the Nicholases lived, the marriage was openly denounced; and even the Daniels, though they were pledged to be present, were in doubt.
'I suppose it is all right,' said Mrs.Robert to her husband.
'Of course it is all right.