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The wedding of Isabel had like to have been put off
for at least a whole month, just for a point of etiquette!
And what do you suppose it was?

Why, you know, that my sweet pupil, Isabel, who for
two years past has grown into the charming grace of intellectual
womanhood under my eye, had captivated the
calm, elegant, retiring Isidore de Clery, while on a visit
at his father's with her own father, Colonel Peyton.
When it was perceived that lovers they were, and married
they would be, why the dear, good colonel gave his
consent, and proposed that the party should go to the
city to purchase the wedding dresses, jewelry, and ever
so many and so forths!

Of course Bel did not object; M. de Clery, senior, did
not object, but was perfectly enraptured at the prospect
of having such a lovely daughter-in-law; and Isidore did
not object by any means. So the wedding, it was decided,
should take place at the Chateau de Clery.

But now, only think of the tyrannies of fashionable
propriety, Mr. —! After we had returned from New
Orleans to the Chateau, a certain very precise, very
starch, very ancient old lady aunt, who was invited from
her sugar estate to the wedding, took it into her antiquated

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head “that it was most becoming for young maidens
to be married (wheresomever they may be courted) at
their paternal mansion; and that it would not be comme
il fault if Isabel were married at the house of the father
of her intended husband! that the bridegroom should go
to the house of the bride elect after his bride, and take
her home!—at least that was the custom in her day!”
which was entre nous, Mr. —, when three brothers,
named Shem, Ham, and Japhet, got their wives, I am
quite satisfied.

Now to the plain Tennessee manners of the colonel,
to the unsophisticated ignorance of poor Isabel, to the
want of savoir faire, pardonable in a White Mountain
Yankee girl, this idea never occurred to us before. The
old aunt's brocade and farthingale notions prevailed over
the better sense of the colonel, and he absolutely told
Bel that she had best be married at home, in Tennessee,
and that we would return on purpose for the next boat!

Bel came to me with her large, glorious, brown eyes,
overrunning with tears, and told me all. I was surprised
and indignant. I wished all meddlesome antediluvian
aunts a league beyond sundown, and telling Bel I
would see what I could do for her, and not to spoil her
pretty eyes with crying, I left my room and went to the
colonel On the way, in the salon, I encountered Isidore.
His face was pale, and his whole aspect perfectly
wretched with an expression of despair. He met me
with extended hands.

“Sweet, good Kate, you must reverse our fate! You
can do any thing you attempt. Influence the colonel to
change his mind. It is absurd! Why can we not be
married at my father's as well as at Bel's? I wish her

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aunt had been blown up —” (no—not so bad as that,”
I said, putting my finger on his lips) “well, sunk to the
bottom of the Mississippi ere she had come here to mar
our felicity. For Bel's sake, as well as mine, do something
in our behalf!”

I promised Isidore I would see what could be done,
and, followed by his blessings, I sought Colonel Peyton,
whom I found walking up and down the piazza on the
shady side of the house, looking as gloomy as if he had
the toothache.

“Well, Kate, I see you have heard the news,” he said,
approaching me. “Bel will cry her eyes out, and Isidore
will blow out his brains! But, bless me, what could
I do? There is my precise sister, with her old, Revolutionary-War
notions, says it will be `an absolute scandal'
if I suffer Bel to be married here, and that such a
thing was never heard of, and that—that—the—d—!
would generally be to pay —.”

(“Fie, colonel!” I said, trying to stop the word at
the syllable, but it was no use—out it came with a heartiness
that was resistless.)

“Well, Kate, it is enough to make old General Taylor
swear!”

“What does Monsieur de Clery say?” I asked.

“He, you know, is so excessively polite that he can't
gainsay a woman, so he bows, and bows, and smiles, and
outwardly acquiesces to my sister, while I very well know
he would be most happy to administer chloroform to her
for the next nine days to come. But, if scandal is to
come of it, Bel must be married at home, as I have told
her. Confound fashion, Kate.”

Here the colonel gave such a petulant fling to his

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cigar, that it went like a rocket through the air, and
lighted upon the thick woolly pate of old Aunt Elise,
igniting the unctuous crisp to the sudden consternation
of the old dame, who screeched so loudly, with her apron
over her head, and ran so madly, yelling “Fire!” that
the colonel burst into laughter, and his anger evaporated,
for he is too good-natured to hold ill-humor.

“Well, Kate, I will be guided by your good sense,
and if it offends my sister we must bear the brunt.
What do you propose in order to keep these lovers from
dying with despair? for, I confess, that to put off a marriage
a whole month, which was to take place to-morrow
night, is a pretty trying affair; don't you think so?”

“I do not know any thing about such matters,” I answered,
very quickly; “but if the good lady is not to
be pacified, I propose that you suggest to M. de Clery
that he invest you with the proprietorship of Chateau
de Clery for a day or so. Do you understand me,
colonel?”

“Upon my word I do not, Kate,” he answered, thoughtfully.

“I understand her, colonel,” responded the cheery
voice of M. de Clery, who overheard me, and now joined
us. “It is a good idea. Bon, bon!”

“A good idea will be the most acceptable to me just
now,” answered the colonel, with a blank look. “What
would Miss Kate be at?”

“I do not wish to offend so respectable a person as
Madame, your sister,” said M. de Clery, with a smile,
“and as her prejudices touching where a Demoiselle should
be married are not to be easily overcome, I herewith invest
you, my dear colonel, for three days, with the sole

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proprietorship of this chateau, servants, and all it contains,
and for that period, Isidore and I will have the
honor of being your happy guests!”

At this the colonel burst into a hearty laugh, and,
shaking M. de Clery by both hands, turned to me and
kissed me, looking the uproarious picture of satisfaction
and delight, and began calling for “Bel,” at the top of
his voice!

The matter was soon arranged. Bel smiled again,
like an April sun coming out from behind showery clouds;
Isidore said I deserved to be married to an emperor,
and the colonel would have kissed me again, if I hadn't
adroitly glided from the reach of his hospitable arm.
The prim aunt was but half and half content. She somehow
felt as if somebody had been whipped around the
stump for her especial benefit; “she couldn't exactly
see how it was, but she hoped it was proper.”

It would have amused you, Mr. —, to have seen
how amazed the servants were when they saw the chateau
so suddenly change hands. M. de Clery resigning
his place at the table to the colonel, and all giving of
orders. It was a merry time we had, and all was carried
forward with commendable gravity, greatly to the
edification of the antiquated lady, who presided at the
tea-table, with inexpressible majesty.

To-night the wedding takes place. All are in a flutter
and excitement. You would think every soul on the place,
black and white, was going to be married, instead of the
blushing, trembling, trying-to-be-composed-Isabel. Such
showing of ivories, on red and black ground, from hall
to kitchen, such Ethiopian merriment, such good humor
and activity generally, never was before.

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