"Now," he said, "you are never so much as to think of anything
unpleasant for the rest of your life. I wonder what you will most like
to do?"
"Buy all the clothes I want," cried Lena with such a deliciously
whimsical twist of her little lips that Dick laughed at her irresistible
wit. That was coming to be one of Lena's most fetching little ways, to
say what she meant as though it were the last thing in the world that
could be expected of her. It was piquant.
It was no time of year to dally in true lovers' fashion under pine trees
in some remote solitude, so Dick took her to cities and theaters and big
shops and got his fun out of watching her revel with open purse. Their
honeymoon was more full of occupation and less of rapture and sweet
isolated intimacy than Dick could have wished, but it was much to watch
the color come and go on her cheek in her moments of excitement, to
fulfil every capricious whim of her who had been starved in her feminine
hunger of caprice, to punctuate the rush of life by celestial moments
when she rested a tired but bewildering head against his shoulder and
listened silently with drooping lids to all he had to say, to feel that
he could answer the admiring glances of other men with the triumphant
knowledge, "All this loveliness is mine--only mine." Lena was so happy,
so outrageously happy,--and so shyly affectionate, what could the young
husband do but take with content the gifts the gods provided; and Dick
was lavish and easily cajoled. The simple trousseau helped out by Miss
Elton suddenly swelled to new and magnificent proportions. Lena
blossomed and glowed; she tricked herself out in the finery that he
provided and paraded before him and the glass until they both laughed
with delight. Dick felt that he was playing with a new and sublimated
doll, it was all so amusing, so inconsequential, and such fun. Although
he wondered a little where it would be appropriate to wear the enormous
pink hat with drooping plumes which perched on the showily fluffy head
now facing him, he quite appreciated the effect.
"Oh, of course you think I'm stunning," Lena pouted. "But the question
is, what will other people think?"
"Other people aren't the question at all," retorted Dick. "Who cares
what they think so long as you and I know that you are the very
loveliest woman on this whole wide earth--this good old earth."
When they came home, Lena exulted again in the luxurious rooms that Dick
had fitted up for her in fashion more modern than the somber dignity of
the rest of the house. Here was another new sensation--a household
without bickerings. The elder Mrs. Percival, having accepted the
situation, was no niggard in her spirit of courtesy, but very gracious
as was her wont, and Lena was astonished to find that she and her new
mother-in-law ran their respective lines without collisions. The
half-invalid older woman breakfasted in her own room and occupied
herself with quiet readings and sewings and drivings, but when she did
appear on the family horizon, it was always as a beneficent presence.