An Ambitious Man

The marriage did take place three months later. Alice Cheney was not

the wife whom Mrs Stuart would have chosen for her son, yet she urged

him to this step, glad to place a barrier for all time between him

and Joy Irving, whose possible return at any day she constantly

feared, and whose power over her son's heart she knew was

undiminished.

Alice Cheney's family was of the best on both sides; there were

wealth, station, and honour; and a step-grandmamma who could be

referred to on occasions as "The Baroness." And there was no

skeleton to be hidden or excused.

And Arthur Stuart, believing that Alice Cheney's life and reason

depended upon his making her his wife, resolved to end the bitter

struggle with his own heart and with fate, and do what seemed to be

his duty, toward the girl and toward his mother. When the wedding

took place, the saddest face at the ceremony, save that of the groom,

was the face of the bride's father. But the bride was radiant, and

Mabel and the Baroness walked in clouds.