“Who is he, Leila?” Helen Trent teasingly called out.

“Yes, who is he, and where did you first meet him?” Leslie Cairns, usually the most silent among the group, could not refrain from joining in the teasing.

“A fine Irish gentleman, of course,” Robin said with elaborate positiveness.

“I must begin practicing old Irish airs,” Phil supplemented with an energetic nod. “I may be asked to play at the wedding.”

“It is valuable time you will be wasting in the practice,” came in ironic tones from behind the big bouquet. The bride’s flowery insignia had dropped squarely into Leila’s open arms at the second when she had dashed forward with the others. Her arms still enwrapping the floral grace, she had ducked her black head until only the crown of it showed above the top of the bouquet.

“Don’t pretend to be so shy! We know you aren’t blushing,” Vera exclaimed.

“How can you know when you can not see my face?” came pithily from behind the white shelter. Leila’s face popped up above the flowers. She peered over them at her tormentors with an expression of such ludicrous shyness as to produce a gale of laughter.

“Now laugh at me,” she said reprovingly, “and that after you have had a fine time making fun of me. And it’s that embarrassed I am. I am all but tongue-tied from bashfulness.”

“We’d never have suspected such a thing. So glad you told us.” Even staid Lucy felt impelled to join in the merry badinage.

“Let me tell you more. If I am the one to be married next, then none of the rest of you will ever be married. So you may practice your Irish airs and play them to me, Phil, for my wedding day is like an Irish myth, something that will never come true.”

“Such a cheerful prediction,” commented Robin Page.

“Is it not?” beamed Leila.

“You really can’t expect us to take you seriously, you know,” Helen said with regretful scepticism.

“I expect nothing else except that you will be making me a sad lot of future trouble by teasing me on all occasions. I shall soon have no comfort at all, at all,” Leila made rueful forecast.

“Never mind,” Lucy lightly sympathized. “You have the bouquet. I was hoping I’d catch it, just because it is so beautiful.”

“A fine bunch of posies it is,” Leila lapsed into brogue, “but it’s yourself that may be catching a bridegroom wan of these days, Luciferous, without the catching of the wadding bo-kay.”

“I guess not,” Lucy made vigorous protest. “Oh, there’s Miss Archer.” She bolted from the group with heightened color for a point across the hall where the principal of the Sanford High School stood talking with Mrs. Dean. A subdued ripple of merriment followed her escape from further teasing on Leila’s part. It was privately conceded among her Hamilton chums that President Matthews’ son was in love with Lucy. Whether, or not, Lucy cared for him was a matter for cogitation among them. Never by word or sign had she betrayed, even to Marjorie, anything other than an ordinary friendly interest in the young man.

“Just the same, she blushed,” Vera said triumphantly, laughing eyes following Lucy’s prompt rush across the hall.

“She’ll soon be in line to blush some more. Donald Matthews is here, somewhere about, only Lucy hasn’t yet happened to see him. President and Mrs. Matthews couldn’t come to the wedding on account of a previous engagement at a house party. Lucy took it for granted that Donald wouldn’t be here, either. I didn’t tell her he was coming. She is so—well, you girls know how she is. I was afraid she’d balk at being maid of honor out of pure shyness, no matter how much she cared about it. Lucy cares about Donald. I’m almost positive she does. You see I still know something about everyone even though I’m no longer Jeremiah Macy,” Jerry wound up with a droll air of wisdom.

Lucy’s green eyes opened wide, when, during her chat with Miss Archer, a tall figure loomed up beside her, speaking her name with politely-concealed eagerness. She was so fully engulfed by the pleasant embarrassment of the moment that she failed to note the battery of affectionately amused eyes bent upon her from the bridal group she had so lately deserted.

“Come on, girls, let’s vanish before she happens to look this way,” Jerry proposed. “She nearly fell dead with surprise, as it was, when she saw her future husband. Let’s not add to the shock.”

The little group promptly moved on into the salon. There they became immediately separated. Jerry was quickly hemmed in by further numbers of well-wishers. Leila, Vera, Helen, Phil and Robin were warmly hailed by Sanford friends they had made while spending holiday vacations with Marjorie and Jerry.

From the midst of a knot of Sanford friends Marjorie’s roving glance took in Leslie, standing at the edge of an animated group, her dark brows drawn together in a frown. “Leslie feels out of things,” was her instant thought. Excusing herself to her friends she hurried over to Leslie, with intent to take her in tow.

“Oh, Bean. I’m glad to get hold of you.” Leslie’s frown disappeared in an expression of patent relief. “I simply had to see you about something, but I hated to butt in on you and your Sanford friends.”

“What is it, Leslie?” Marjorie asked with quick concern. She was yet far from understanding Leslie’s complex nature.

“I’ve done something, Bean, something I thought would be nice for Jerry and Mr. Seabrooke. I’ve got away with the first half of the stunt—and,” Leslie paused, looking half abashed, “now I wonder how I’m going to get away with the last half. I thought it would be easy, but—well—I find it isn’t. It’s just struck me that Jerry and her husband may think I have a colossal nerve to—to——” Leslie stopped, coloring. “You’ll have to help me out, Bean,” she said desperately, with a short laugh.

“Of course I will. Tell me what you’d like me to do for you. I know you’ve planned something lovely for Jerry and Danny,” encouraged Marjorie.

“Maybe.” Leslie still looked doubtful. “All right. Here goes. You see since my father went to London there’s no one except me to use his private car on the railroad. I knew Jerry and Mr. Seabrooke were going to the Adirondacks on their honeymoon, so I thought it would maybe please them to go there in Peter’s car. If I had thought of it sooner, I’d have told Jerry about it. It never occurred to me until day before yesterday, and I’ve had to do some little hustling to get the car here in time. Believe me, I’ve kept the wires hot between here and New York. The car’s here; it came in at two o’clock this afternoon, and I was right there at the station yard to welcome it. I dropped out of the gang this afternoon, but they were all so busy they didn’t miss me. Now that’s part one—very nice and easy. What?” Leslie’s deliberate smile showed itself.

“Yes; What? You delightful plotter of happiness.” Marjorie’s face was alight with appreciation of Leslie’s plan. “Now that you’ve planned the surprise, and had all the trouble to make it come true, you want me to tell them about it. No, siree; you’re going to tell them about it yourself.”

“I can’t. I won’t. I thought once I could, but I’ve got cold feet now. Please tell them, Beanie Bean. I haven’t the nerve.”

“You’ve always said you had nerve enough for anything,” came Marjorie’s smiling retort.

“I know it. I say a great many foolish things,” Leslie admitted with a faint chuckle. “Are you going to stand by me, or are you going to quit me cold?”

“I’ll help you a little,” Marjorie conceded teasingly. “I’ll find Jerry and Danny and steer them into the library after the company have mostly gone upstairs to the ball room. Then you are to break the news to them.”

“Oh, no, I——”

“Oh, yes, you must. You haven’t the least idea of what a fine surprise you are going to give Jerry. She’d like to hear it from you, Leslie. She is very fond of you.”

“But she used to hate me like poison, both she and Leila Harper. I know they like me now,” Leslie went on quickly. “They’ve shown that much. Jerry, by asking me to be one of her bridesmaids, and Leila, by asking me to be business manager of the Playhouse. I’m beginning to feel at home with Leila, but with Jerry, somehow, it seems almost as though there was a barrier still standing between us. I get it dimly that she hasn’t, perhaps, ever forgiven me for the contemptible things I once tried to put over on you. I felt really pleased with myself about this car business, until I began thinking that she might not be pleased at all. You understand what I mean. It’s hard to try to explain.” Leslie fixed suddenly somber eyes upon Marjorie.

“Yes, I understand, and I also understand that you are a big goose, Leslie Adoree Cairns,” Marjorie made cheering response. “Let me tell you something. Jerry would not be your friend today unless she had entirely forgiven and forgotten anything she might have once laid up against you. She would have held herself aloof from you in spite of yours and my friendship. Nothing I might have said to her in your favor would have induced her to change her mind. There; does that give you more nerve?”

“Some,” Leslie brightened visibly.

“All right. Go on into the library, and wait for us. I’ll bring Jerry and Danny there as soon as I can.” Marjorie caught Leslie by the hands with a friendly little pressure, then sped away on her pleasant errand. At the doorway of the salon she turned to cast a reassuring smile at Leslie who stood gazing soberly after her.

Leslie’s hand went up in acknowledging gesture, then she started slowly for the library which was situated on the opposite side of the house from the salon.

“Leslie would like to see you and Danny in the library,” Marjorie presently murmured in Jerry’s ear during a brief lull in the new tide of congratulation that was holding the bridal pair captive in the salon.

“Yours truly,” Jerry returned in an undertone. “This ‘wish you joy’ stunt will soon be over. Tell Leslie she may expect us. Now what’s on her mind?”

“Wait, and learn,” Marjorie cryptically advised. Unauthorized by Leslie she gathered together Leila, Vera, Robin, Phil, Helen Trent, and, lastly, Lucy Warner, who stood talking to Donald Matthews with the serious air of a sage.

“You’re needed in the library to attend a special session of the Travelers,” she told each girl in turn. “Come along with me.” Nor would she give out a word of information regarding the import of the special session.

Outside the library doorway she called a halt in the procession. “We’ll wait here for Danny and Jerry. Keep back out of sight of Leslie. She’s in the library, but I’d rather she wouldn’t see you just yet.”

“What is it all about? As your business partner I think I’m entitled to an explanation. Page and Dean aren’t supposed to have secrets from each other,” Robin made plaintive plea.

“She is that aggravating.” Leila raised disapproving hands. “Wurra, wurra! What shall we do with her?”

“Pull down her curls,” Vera made a playful dive at Marjorie.

“Steal her orchids.” Phil made a pretended grab at the cluster of orchids nestling against Marjorie’s shoulder.

“Powder her nose till it looks floury,” Helen whisked a gold compact from a tiny inside pocket of her corsage and advanced upon Marjorie.

In the midst of the pretended struggle, carried on amid much subdued mirth, a calm voice inquired: “What’s going on out here?” Leslie, tired of her own company, as she continued to wait in the library for Marjorie and the Seabrookes, and strolled to the door, attracted by the sound of familiar voices, gleeful with laughter. She stood surveying the group, a trace of her former quizzical aloof attitude toward the Travelers in her face and bearing.

“Now see what you’ve done.” Marjorie merrily declared as she extricated herself from Helen’s grasp. Helen, at least, had determined to carry out her part of the punishment. “You’re discovered, and all because you made so much noise. Very well. You may now escort Leslie with all pomp and ceremony into the library. She has done something perfectly dear for Jerry and Danny. I took the liberty of bringing you girls here because I thought they would like you to share the surprise that’s coming to them, with them.”

She turned to Leslie, laying a soft little hand on the other girl’s arm. “Do you mind, Leslie? We’re all Travelers together you know, sworn to share each other’s joys and sorrows. If you do, then——”

“No, I don’t; not the least bit.” Leslie was smiling now. “I thought for a minute I did; but not now. The gang will support me during the ordeal,” she concluded humorously.

“Now it seems we know something of what we are about to be doing, and still not much of anything. Let us do ourselves proud as escorts, and then see what happens.” Leila made a sweeping bow to Leslie, crooking an inviting arm. “Will you kindly be taking my Irish arm, Miss Cairns?” she said gallantly.

“Take mine, too,” petitioned Phil, ranging herself on Leslie’s other side.

“Robin and I are going to walk ahead of Leslie, backwards, into the library, bowing all the way, and chanting her praises,” Vera announced grandly.

“Then I’ll be advising you to watch your step, or you find your two selves sitting down very suddenly,” was Leila’s mirthful warning.

“We might as well bring up the rear,” Marjorie told Helen and Lucy. “All the best positions have been snapped up.”

Leslie had hardly more than been bowed to the big leather davenport, invited by her flamboyantly polite escorts to be seated, when Jerry’s voice was heard outside the room.

“Here we are,” she called out cheerily as she and Danny entered the library. Her quick glance took in the group awaiting her with a flash of surprise. Marjorie had merely said that Leslie wished to see Danny and herself in the library. “We came down the back stairs and through the kitchen so as to dodge the crowd. What’s stirring?” she asked lightly, but her eyes directly sought Leslie’s face.

“Nothing much.” Leslie’s dark eyes were bent on Jerry with smiling friendliness.

A brief instant of silence ensued. The other bridesmaids were wondering pleasantly what it was all about. Danny was showing attentive interest, though Marjorie read complete mystification on his composed features.

“Peter,” Leslie began abruptly, then laughed, “I mean my father, is in London, you know. His private car on the railroad isn’t doing anyone any good, just at present. I thought you two,” she nodded toward the bride and groom, “might like it for your trip to the Adirondacks. I wired for it, and it’s down at the railroad yard now, ready to go out with the one-o’clock train. It will be at your disposal during your honeymoon trip, if you’ll accept the use of it. If you wish to go to any other place in it from the mountains, wire me at Hamilton twenty-four hours before you start, and I’ll gladly make arrangements for you. Our houseman, Emil, will be aboard to make you comfortable. That’s all, except that it would make both my father and me very happy to have you use it,” she ended almost humbly.

“Leslie,” Jerry put out both hands impulsively to Leslie who caught them in a close warm clasp. “You take my breath. What a lot of trouble you have been to just on purpose to make Danny and me happy. Isn’t it perfectly celostrous, Danny?” she turned eagerly to her husband.

“It is.” Danny’s hand went out to Leslie. “It’s a knock-down,” he said, his roguish smile breaking out. “I can’t think of anything to say except ‘Thank you, Leslie. You’ve surely added tonight to our happiness.’”

Phil’s hands waved themselves above her head like triumphant banners as she sent up this joyful tribute. The other Travelers immediately took it up with a will. As a result more than one guest’s head poked itself through the arched doorway to be as quickly withdrawn with the chagrined knowledge that the cheering going on in the library seemed to be a strictly intimate matter of rejoicing.

“It’s time we were moving on, Travelers tried and true,” Marjorie presently said after the hub-bub of buoyant talk and laughter had died out. “I should like to have at least one dance with the groom before these two,” she smilingly indicated Danny and Jerry, “have run away from us; provided he should ask me for a dance,” she added innocently.

“Will you please trot a trot with me, Mrs. Macy?” Danny grinningly rose to the occasion.

“I will; I’d love to,” Marjorie came back with equal promptness. She knew Danny was feeling far more pleasantly embarrassed than appeared on the surface at Leslie’s good will offer.

“If you were a bride in old Ireland you would have to dance with every man who came to your wedding,” was Leila’s cheering remark to Jerry as the library party started for the ball room.

“Good night! I certainly have something to be thankful for,” was Jerry’s emphatic opinion.

Up the familiar two flights of stairs to the ball room, a climb now doubly endeared by memory to the Sanford contingent of the light-hearted group, an evening of further jollity awaited them.

Dancing had already begun, and a fox trot was in full swing when they entered the ball room, soon to be whirled into the ever favorite amusement of the dance. Jerry and Danny had a dance together, then did not meet again until over an hour later when they led the merry van downstairs to partake of the wedding supper which would be served in the mammoth tent on the lawn.

The bridal table was a thing of beauty in the way of decorative art, and at the many smaller tables roses formed the center decoration with a rose at each place. There were favors for the feminine fair of satin-covered, rose-topped powder boxes in delicate evening shades, and for the men there were cunning Japanese rose jars filled with delightful rose pot-pourri.

The bridal table seated the bride and groom, Mr. and Mrs. Macy, Mr. and Mrs. Seabrooke and the groomsman, Robert Seabrooke, Mr. and Mrs. Dean, Hal and Marjorie, Miss Susanna Hamilton, Irma, Susan and Constance together with their husbands, the six bridesmaids, the maid of honor, and last, but not least, Delia. Jerry had ranked Delia as among her “best pals,” declaring that Delia was too thoroughly a part of the Dean menage to be separated from it at the wedding supper.

It was close to midnight when the last toast to the bride and groom had been drunk down and the big tent had emptied itself of its merry assemblage, the majority of elder guests to take their leave and the younger set to return to the ball room for another hour of dancing.

“What Danny and I ought to do is to duck out the back way, cut and run,” Jerry told Marjorie in the privacy of her room to which she and Marjorie had slipped away from the throng after supper, there to make ready for her wedding journey. “Make up your mind there’ll be rice enough thrown at us to stop a famine in China. There’ll be confetti, too. Make no mistake about that. By the time the Seabrookes dash into their car it will be hard to say which they resemble most, the tag end of a Mardi Gras parade, or a couple of rice stalks in full crop. Anyhow, we aren’t going to duck. Danny and I are agreed upon that point. Nothing like giving our friends a chance at us,” Jerry grinned philosophically as she slipped into the smart beige colored ensemble she had chosen as a traveling costume.

When at half-past twelve she and Danny boldly essayed their departure by way of the broad flight of steps which led down from the port cochere to the drive the rice storm set in in earnest. Amid showers of rice and confetti, and a frantic hub-bub of gay-spirited farewells, the besieged couple fled across the narrow space of stone walk, gaining the welcome shelter of their waiting car. A moment, and William, the Macy’s chauffeur, had sent the trim roadster shooting forward down the drive. Jerry and Danny were started at last upon their real journey through life.