Girl to Come Home To (30 page)

The mother gave him a scrutinizing look. Good heavens! Was he
religious
? Or was this just put on for the occasion? But Rodney was smiling and drawing Diana close to his side with her fingers squeezed tightly in his own, and he suddenly turned and gave her a kiss, so tender and genuine that the mother was won entirely over.

“And now,” said Rodney, standing there with Diana’s hand still in his, “we’d like, if you don’t mind, to go right to the authorities and get a marriage license, for I have to go on duty at my new job on Monday, and I’d like to take my wife down with me just as soon as possible. Could we possibly have it the next Saturday?”

“But—but—
but
!” said Mrs. Winters. “We couldn’t possibly arrange a wedding that soon. There are clothes to be bought, a whole trousseau, a wedding dress. It takes time to get clothes together to be married, my dears. Make it six months at least. Clothes take a lot of time!”

“Clothes!”
sniffed Diana cheerfully. “What are clothes? I’ve got plenty for the time being, and even if you insist on a new one for the wedding, I can get that in an hour, I’m sure.”

“But, my dear! You couldn’t possibly get the invitations out in that time. A
week
! It’s preposterous!”

“But why have invitations? We can call up the few people we like best and just have it a quick war wedding. I don’t want a lot of stuff to put away in a trunk in the attic for the rest of my life the way you did with your wedding dress. I have it, Mother! I’ll wear your wedding dress if you’ll let me.”

“Why, of course,” said the father. “That would be great. It will fit her, I’m sure. You were as slim as she is when you were married, my dear.”

But Mother Winters drew her fine proportions up and lifted her chin haughtily and said, “Now, Edward, I haven’t changed so much.”

“Why no, of course not, my dear. You’re just as charming as when I first fell in love with you.”

So great joy descended upon the two young people, and even the dazed parents began to think that life was pretty nice.

It helped a lot, too, when there came a telephone message from the other would-be bridegroom, saying he was to be sent overseas at once and wouldn’t be able to come back to see Diana at present. But nobody was thinking anything about him, only Diana who wrote a nice little note of farewell and good wishes, and called that part of her life a closed incident.

They had a lot of fun and were very busy that week.

Of course Rodney had to get back to the plant early Monday morning, but as soon as the marriage license was arranged for, he had gotten in touch with his family at home and told them the good news so they could rejoice with him as soon as he returned. They were overjoyed at the news, and they all promised to come up to New York for the wedding, just for the day, of course. So Mrs. Winters had plenty to do finding rooms for them all and getting ready for a real house party, a thing she adored doing.

Diana tried on her mother’s dress and found it needed very little alteration, and they simply eliminated all shopping for the time being.

It was a trial for the mother to give up all this delightful shopping, for the present, but she surrendered gracefully, with a resigned smile.

“I’ll get you a lot of lovely things afterward,” she said, “when we have more time to find what we want.”

It was a goodly trainload of guests who came up the morning of the wedding day to see Diana and Rodney married.

Margaret Graeme wondered on the way whether Louella would ever forgive them that she should have started away only the day before the knowledge of the wedding came to the Graeme family. But Louella hadn’t left an address where they could have reached her, and of course they were all just as well pleased not to have to have her.

And so it was going to be only the real families, Graemes, Sandersons, and a few very intimate friends and relatives of the Winters family. Though all their New York friends understood that they might come to the church if they cared to, as it was to be quite an informal affair.

The wedding was to be in the great stone church that the Winters family had attended for generations, and Mother Winters was having her own way about the decorations, costly, refined, and beautiful as any dream. Lilies and roses and palms and great lacy ferns and masses of white azaleas. But then the decorations were only a matter of an order to the best florist of New York, so everything was fitting and beautiful, and everybody satisfied.

The reception was supposed to be private, for the families and
very
intimates, but that, too, was only the matter of an order to the best caterer in the city. Mrs. Winters had nothing to weary her naturally sweet temper. There were no hitches nor mistakes, nothing to show the difference between the quiet station of one family and the smarter station of the other, with the sensible, lovely Sandersons in between.

Jeremy of course was best man, and Beryl maid of honor.

The flowers were wonderful, and Diana’s bouquet was as lovely as if she were marrying a millionaire. It was Rodney’s one chance to show what he liked best for his dear bride. White roses, many of them, with maidenhair ferns, and smiling mistily in between, giving lightness to the whole spray, little waxen lilies of the valley. He enjoyed getting that armful of flowers for his dear girl. He had had so little opportunity as yet to show her how he loved her.

And even his new mother-in-law said it was exquisite!

The wedding was in the early evening, and they were going away soon after the ceremony so they might have one whole beautiful day to themselves before they had to go back into the world and begin to live. Rodney regretted so that they might not have a regular honeymoon and go away somewhere together, but Diana only smiled and said that was the way most servicemen were having to do now while the war still lasted. And they were going to be together now in their own little home, a cottage at the upper end of the Graeme farm for the present, so it didn’t matter.

Thank God Rodney didn’t have to leave the next day and go back overseas, as so many war men had to do and leave their brides alone with an ocean and peril between them.

Besides, Diana was in a hurry to get home and get her house ready for her parents’ first visit, when the Winters would really get acquainted with her dear Graemes.

And now, let’s go to the wedding, all of us.

The organ was playing sweet hymns.

“But
hymns
! Darling!
Not
hymns for a
wedding
,” protested Diana’s mother. “
Just
hymns! I have never
heard
of such a thing! You don’t want to be outlandish. You
couldn’t
really have such an innovation. It would scarcely be, well, respectable! Just hymns and no other music! I thought you were talking about that wonderful singer. Aren’t you going to have him sing something? Yes, I thought so! And the “ ‘Wedding March,’ ” you know. It wouldn’t seem right without that, of course. But hymns are not at all fitting at such a time of rejoicing. Hymns are so somber and gloomy.”

But Diana was firm. “It’s
my
wedding, isn’t it, Mother? Well, that’s the way I want it. That’s the way we
both
want it. It’s to be a kind of declaration of our faith!”

“What
nonsense
!” said her mother with a worried frown.

But the organ was playing sweet old hymns that meant very much to the bridal party. Softly, tenderly, the organ spoke, like a prayer breathed for the lives of those two who were to be joined in marriage. Some were lovely like the evening, some cheerful like the morning, and some triumphant, as when the words that belonged to their harmonies spoke of the coming of the Lord to those who understood.

Diana had compromised on having the “Wedding March” played just as she stood at the door ready to enter, for her mother had been so aggrieved and felt its absence so keenly that she could not seem to be comforted to have it left out.

So the great organist somehow was made to understand about these two with shining eyes who went to explain it to him, and so he made the “Wedding March” sound very far away at first, then drawing nearer, and nearer, till when the bride stood at the very door it melted into a triumphant note or two and went gloriously into another great sounding hymn.

Diana’s mother frowned and caught her breath, turned quickly, and cast an anxious glance back at the door. What was the matter? Hadn’t Diana arrived yet after all? How strange! She was all ready when she left home. What could have happened? Was she taken suddenly ill? But Diana was almost never ill! She gave another anxious glance back again, and there she could see by the door a vision of white, the wonderful old veil! A lovely vision!

The audience had caught its breath and looked back, too, saw her there, while that triumphant hymn went on for an instant, filling the church with its sweet glad harmonies, and then suddenly a thrilling voice took up the strains with wondrous words. They were new to Mrs. Winters. What did this mean? Wasn’t the organist going to go on with the “Wedding March” while the bride came up the aisle? But then she had to stop her puzzled worries and listen as the great singer made the words of the song live.

And so when Diana walked softly up that richly carpeted aisle in the beautiful old white satin wedding gown, trimmed with rare old costly lace, her lovely face alight with joy that had a touch of real glory in it, it was not to the conventional “Wedding March” that she timed her footsteps but to the fine old hymn as that wonderful voice sang the words:

Rodney, in his handsome uniform, with the glory-light on his own face, watched her come up the aisle to him, leaning on her father’s arm, and said to himself in his heart as she came, “What a girl to come home to!”

G
RACE
L
IVINGSTON
H
ILL
(1865–1947) is known as the pioneer of Christian romance. Grace wrote over one hundred faith inspired books during her lifetime. When her first husband died, leaving her with two daughters to raise, writing became a way to make a living, but she always recognized storytelling as a way to share her faith in God. She has touched countless lives through the years and continues to touch lives today. Her books feature moving stories, delightful characters, and love in its purest form.

Grace Livingston Hill Classics

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A Girl to Come Home To

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