After the Storm

All this was well, as far as it could go. But repentance and mutual

forgiveness did not restore everything to the old condition--did not

obliterate that one sad page in their history, and leave them free

to make a new and better record. If the folly had been in private,

the effort at forgiving and forgetting would have been attended with

fewer annoying considerations. But it was committed in public, and

under circumstances calculated to attract attention and occasion

invidious remark. And then, how were they to meet the different

members of the wedding-party, which they had so suddenly thrown into

consternation?

On the next day the anxious members of this party made their

appearance at Ivy Cliff, not having, up to this time, received any

intelligence of the fugitive bride. Mr. Delancy did not attempt to

excuse to them the unjustifiable conduct of his daughter, beyond the

admission that she must have been temporarily deranged. Something

was said about resuming the bridal tour, but Mr. Delancy said, "No;

the quiet of Ivy Cliff will yield more pleasure than the excitement

of travel."

And all felt this to be true.