What a merry happy party it was--how they all seemed to enjoy
themselves--and how they all laughed, when the bride essayed to cut the
cake, and could not get the knife through the icing--and how the young
girls put pieces away privately, that they might place them under their
pillows to dream upon! What a happy time they had!
Father Banks enjoyed himself amazingly; he eat quantities of stewed
terrapin, and declared it the best he ever tasted. He talked gravely to the
old people--cheerfully and amusingly to the young; and was, in fact, having
a most delightful time--when a servant whispered to him that there was a
person in the entry who wished to see him immediately.
"Oh dear!" he exclaimed to Mr. Balch, "I was just congratulating myself
that I should have one uninterrupted evening, and you see the
result--called off at this late hour."
Father Banks followed the servant from the room, and inquired of the
messenger what was wanted.
"You must come to the hospital immediately, sir; the man with the
typhus-fever--you saw him yesterday--he's dying; he says he must see
you--that he has something important to confess. I'm to go for a magistrate
as well."
"Ah!" said Father Banks, "you need go no further, Alderman Balch is
here--he is quite competent to receive his depositions.
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