Parson Fair, Burr Gordon, and his mother, at the foot of the stairs among the curious wedding-guests, looked for a second at one another.
The parson's fine state seemed to have deserted him.

There were red spots on his pale cheeks.

His long hands twitched nervously.

"I will--inform them," he said, huskily, at length, but Burr moved before him.

"No, sir; I will do it," he said.
Then he strode into the great north parlor, where the more important guests were assembled, and where he and Dorothy were to have been married.