Chapter XLIX

Persis was not the only busy person in New York. Willie was kept on the jump preparing his share of the performance. The ushers were to be chosen, and their gifts, and a dinner given to them; and his list of friends to receive announcements and invitations must be made up, and the bride's gift selected, and the itinerary of the honeymoon arranged, his yacht put into commission, and a dinner of farewell to bachelorhood accepted and endured.

He hardly caught a glimpse of Persis all this while, and when he heard her voice on the telephone it was only to receive some new list of chores. He missed the billing and cooing that he knew belonged to these conversations. His heart ached to be assured of Persis' love; but she was incapable of even imitating the amorous note with him. When he pleaded for tendernesses she put him off as best she could by blaming her brusqueness on her overwork, as one who does not wish to sign oneself "Yours faithfully" or "affectionately" or even "truly" writes "Yours hastily."

But Willie's incessant prayer for love harassed her. It was a phase of him that had been unimportant hitherto. And it alarmed her a little. It would have given her greater uneasiness if she had not had so many other matters to worry her, if she had not had so many fascinating excitements to divert her.

Forbes was busy, too. Senator Tait had easily arranged his appointment as military attache. He had his duties to learn in this capacity. He had to polish up his French and take lessons in conversation and composition, and learn what he could about the French military establishment and procedure. And he had to make ready for a long residence abroad.

To him, too, preoccupation was an opiate for suffering. Ambition and pride were resuming their interrupted sway. So long as he was busy he counted Persis as one of the tragedies of his past, and his love of her as a thing lived down and sealed in the archives of his heart.

But when he had an hour of leisure or of sleeplessness, she came back to him like a ghost with eery beauty and uncanny charm. He found her in nearly every newspaper, too. The announcement of her engagement brought forth a shower of portraits. There were articles about the alliance between the two families of Enslee and Cabot, about the bride's style of beauty, her recipes for beauty, silly accounts of interviews she never gave, beauty secrets she never used, exercises she never took, opinions on matters on which she had never thought. She was caught by camera-bogies on every shopping expedition, at the steeplechases, at the weddings of other people--everywhere. There were moving pictures of her; pictures of her in her babyhood, her girlhood, in old-fashioned costumes and poses. Women began to copy her hats, her coiffures, her costumes. An alert merchant with a large amount of an unsalable material on hand named it "Persis pink," and women fought for it. It became a household word, or, its substitute nowadays, a newspaper word.

Forbes was dumfounded at the publicity of Persis. He was tempted to believe that she had gone mad and hired a press-agent. But a woman who marries a rich enough man needs no booming to-day. The whisper of her engagement starts the avalanche. She becomes as public as a queen or a politician or a criminal.

The incessant encounter with Persis' beauty in every newspaper, morning and evening and Sunday, and in the illustrated weeklies, kept Forbes' wound open. He could not escape her. It was like being a prisoner at a window where she was always passing. She smiled at him everywhere, and always with the shadow of the Enslee name imminent above her.

On the morning of the day he sailed, as he held his newspaper between his coffee and his cigar, certain head-lines leaped up and shouted at him from the top of a column with a roar as of apocalyptic trumpets. He hastened to his room to be alone while he read the chronicle of what was already past.

MISS PERSIS CABOT
WEDS WM. ENSLEE

HEAD OF THE FAMOUS HOUSE
MARRIED AT ST. THOMAS'S
YESTERDAY AFTERNOON

Reception at Bride's Home

Earl and Countess of Kelvedon among Distinguished Guests.
Church a Mass of Bloom.

The marriage of William Enslee, the present head of the great
dynasty of Enslee, and Miss Persis Cabot, the famous beauty,
daughter of an equally distinguished family, was celebrated at 4:30
yesterday afternoon in St. Thomas's Church, Fifty-third Street and
Fifth Avenue. This was the largest and most brilliant wedding of
the season.

The chancel of the church was banked with rambler roses and white
daisies, against a background of camellia-trees and towering palms,
and the way to the altar was marked with bay and orange trees. The
altar was a mass of bridal roses under an immense trellis of
trailing smilax.

While the guests were arriving a recital was given by an orchestra,
which played several selections at the bride's request, including
the "Evening Star" from "Tannhaeuser," the prelude to "Lohengrin,"
the gavotte from "Mignon," and Simonetti's "Madrigale."

The ushers who seated the guests included the bride's brother,
LeGrand Cabot, Murray Ten Eyck, Robert Gammell Fielding, and Ives
Erskine.

The full vested-choir service was used for the ceremony, and
Barnby's "O Perfect Love" was played as the processional. The bride
walked down the nave with her father, who gave her in marriage,
being preceded by the ushers, bridesmaids, matron, maid of honor,
and flower-bearers. The bride wore a robe of heavy white satin, the
skirt being draped with long motifs of old family lace and finished
with a square train, which was edged with clusters of orange
blossoms. The bodice was cut low and square in front, of lace and
chiffon, with a deep collar of rose point lace of square and
distinctive cut at the back. Her tulle veil was arranged about her
head in cap effect, held by a coronet of orange blossoms. Her only
ornament was a superb necklace of diamonds, the gift of the
bridegroom.

She carried a cluster bouquet of white orchids, an ivory
prayer-book that was also carried by her mother at her wedding, and
a Valenciennes handkerchief.

The Countess of Kelvedon, the bride's sister, was matron of honor.
She wore a costume of soft white charmeuse, with an overskirt
drapery effect of green chiffon, almost as deep in color as
jade-green, and the upper part of her gown was a combination of
satin and white chiffon, with a V opening at the neck. Her round
leghorn hat was encircled with jade-green satin, and topped at the
side with bows of green ribbon and pink roses. Her only ornament
was a solitaire diamond suspended on an invisible platinum chain,
and she carried a bouquet of Mme. Chatenay roses.

Her two little children were the flower-bearers, the tiny Honorable
Paul Hadham and the exquisite little Lady Maude Hadham.

The four bridesmaids, the Misses Winifred Mather, Emma Gay, Lois
Twombly, and Frances Iselin, also wore gowns that were a charming
combination of white and green. Wide panels of green chiffon fell
from the back of the shoulders to the hem of the ankle-length
skirts of charmeuse, which disclosed white slippers with large
rhinestone buckles. The green chiffon crossed the shoulders in
fichu effect, and the elbow-length sleeves were edged with bands of
green. Their leghorn hats of brown straw were trimmed with green
satin and white chiffon, and faced with black velvet, with upright
bows of green at the side. They each carried bouquets of roses,
sweet-peas, and field-daisies, tied with pink satin streamers, and
their ornaments were locket watches, the gift of the bride.

The ceremony was performed by the rector of the church, assisted
by....

Twenty-five hundred invitations were sent out for the wedding. The
church was quite full, and the residence of the bride's parents,
where the wedding reception was held, was crowded to its utmost.
Mr. and Mrs. Enslee received congratulations in the Cabot
drawing-room. A collation was served in the....

Some of the wedding-gifts were shown in rooms on the third floor.
They were....

After the reception Mr. and Mrs. Enslee will leave almost
immediately for a honeymoon cruise on Mr. Enslee's yacht. They will
tour Europe later.

Among those invited to the wedding were....

The paper dropped from Forbes' hand. The irrevocable was accomplished. She was Enslee's, body and soul and name.