The marriage did take place three months later. Alice Cheney was not
the wife whom Mrs Stuart would have chosen for her son, yet she urged
him to this step, glad to place a barrier for all time between him
and Joy Irving, whose possible return at any day she constantly
feared, and whose power over her son's heart she knew was
undiminished.
Alice Cheney's family was of the best on both sides; there were
wealth, station, and honour; and a step-grandmamma who could be
referred to on occasions as "The Baroness." And there was no
skeleton to be hidden or excused.
And Arthur Stuart, believing that Alice Cheney's life and reason
depended upon his making her his wife, resolved to end the bitter
struggle with his own heart and with fate, and do what seemed to be
his duty, toward the girl and toward his mother. When the wedding
took place, the saddest face at the ceremony, save that of the groom,
was the face of the bride's father. But the bride was radiant, and
Mabel and the Baroness walked in clouds.