Jewel Weed

"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.