"Beatrice must and shall have her friends round her when she gives herself to Bertram.

Your son is making an excellent match from a money point of view and from all other points of view, and if there is a bitter with the sweet, he must learn to swallow it with a good grace." When the rector had mentioned "from a money point of view" Mrs.Bertram had forced herself to clear her brows, and smile amiably.

After all, beside this great and important question of money what were these small worries but pinpricks.
The pin-prick, however, was capable of going somewhat deeper, when Catherine informed her mother that Beatrice particularly wished to have her friends, the Bells, and Daisy Jenkins as bride's-maids at her wedding.
"No, no, impossible," burst from Mrs.Bertram's lips.
But in the end she had to yield this point also, for what will not a woman do who is hard beset and pressed into a corner to set herself free from so humiliating and torturing a position.
Thus everything was getting ready for the great event.

The bride's trousseau was the wonder of all beholders.

The subject of Beatrice's wedding was the only one on the _tapis_, and no one saw a little cloud in the sky, nor guessed at even the possibility of trouble ahead..