In response
people appeared from everywhere. The bride-elect was the last to put in
an appearance, and when she came, there was a certain reluctance in her
aspect.
"Hurry up, there!" admonished Just, already busy with chisel and hammer
at the slender, flat box which lay upon the hall floor, in the centre of
an interested group. He paused to glance up at his sister, where she had
stopped upon the landing. "You act as if you didn't want to see what's
in it," he remonstrated, whacking away vigorously.
"Indeed I do," Charlotte declared, coming on down the staircase, smiling
at the faces upturned toward her, which were smiling back, every one.
"But I'm beginning to feel as if I--as if they--as if--"
"It must seem odd to feel like that," John Lansing agreed, quizzically.
Lanse had but just arrived, having come on especially for the wedding,
from the law-school at which he had been for two years.
Celia slipped her arm about her younger sister's shoulders. "I know what
she means," she said, in her gentle way. "It's so unexpected to her,
after sending out no invitations at all, that gifts should keep pouring
in like this.
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