Evening star., 1909-06-06

iectons of Fraulein Lechner the clergyman, the
Consul, and the German Government, he married his
childhood sweetheart the morning after his arrival IN
Munich The way he accomplished it was simple-to
hin-yet the Consul vowed he had never heard of
another American who had got around the German
marriage laws The American clergyman turned out
to be from the State of New York, where licenses
were not required for marriage Jack demanded to
be married under New York laws. The Consul could
find no legal objections 1t done.
Jack had however, one loyal coworker in what
Fraulen Lechner, with characteristic shrug, had
called his Sabine methods of matrmony.' Mary
Marshall had kept up Elizabeths courage while Jack
was away arguing with the Consul and the clergy
man foreign wedding for her friend. and honey
moon in Egypt had for Mary all the zest of the
expected united with the glamour of romance She
packed the brides trunk dressed her and adorned
her for the ceremony best she could such short
notice. and after all waved her laughing
farewels as the train pulled out. Then she went
home and in the privacy of their sitting ROOM where
Elizabeth's easy chair seemed to have grown three
times larger in her absence she wept tear for every
wedding smile She sadly reflected that, though
Elizabeth still had her romance, her part IN 1T
was played that the bright threads of their lives
long intermingled, were at last discovered. But
Clotho had only begun to wind new reel
THE cable to E1izabeth's parents that announced
her marriage startled them like sudden summer
thunderbolt The banker took practical view OF the
matter however and said to his wife:
My dear, the young people have stolen march
on us. For my part don't know but it is for the
best Now that Elizabeth married, Jack will bring
her home You know you never really approved of
her staying abroad alone with Mary. 1t l had been
in Jacks place, should have Well, now, Jennie,
don't you remember what | did once when your
aunt in New York wanted to keep you Whoe WIN
ter with herr
Mrs Lawrence could not submit to the inevitable
so cheerfully. First came the hurt to her mother
love- She wept to think that her daughter had
taken this most momentous step OF her life away
from home Then there the disappointment
about the wedding This wedding IN all its beauty
L., Mrc
Lawrence mind Not less than score of handsome
ushers and pretty picturesque bridesmaids, small
pages and flower girls and the bride herself satny
shi1nmering white veiled vison,-nothing less than
all this could uphold the momentous concept OF we'd
ding in any Southern woman S mind
Though Mrs Lawrence cabled her blessing to
Cairo-the address the truant bridal pair had given
her-it was sometime before she could forgive her
Bohemian in law for upsettlng her plans. The
attitude of her acquaintance did not tend to lessen
her grievance Bowling Green, of the old towns
of its State had many long established customs and
unwritten laws which it's naturally conservative
people obeyed contentedly. The news of Elizabeth's
unconventional foreign marriage had started much
talk (omnous wordD in that town. No girl whose
father had plenty of money had ever foregone the
vanity of big wedding, with her acqualntances
to witness her marriage unless she had had no time
to issue invitations through the necessity OF outdis
tancing pursuing father in mad race to the bor-
ders of Tennessee.
Hence, rumors now spread about that the banker
had compelled Elizabeth to break her engagement
with lack Clay because that young man had grown
wild in Chicago; also that he had sent Elizabeth
abroad only to separate her and Jack.
AS man will laugh most at his own joke, so Bow
ling Green enjoyed keenly the humor of its purely
imaginary account of the way Jack Clay had turned
the tables on the stern banker Jack Clay, when
boy had gone school in Bowling Green; hence
this fictitious coup known to be in keeping with
his character.
Finally however, when the excitement of spicy
gossip had abated and the banker had appeared
daily at his office with smiling, unrutfled face
milder solutions of Elizabeth's peculiar wedding
drifted about That she had married abroad simply
to take her fellow townspeope by surprise was one
of these innocent explanations; and this last since it