It was a whimsical idea, he said, but he would like
to see his old home gay once more, as it used to be years ago.
"Besides," said he, "I am rheumatic, and might not be able to attend the
wedding, if held elsewhere."
Mrs. Crull, when she first heard, from the lips of the blushing Pet,
that Bog had proposed and been accepted, immediately outlined the plan
of a wedding at her house, which should be something unprecedented in
point of magnificence. The plan took shape as she thought of it, and she
had already settled upon the number of invitations, and the other
principal arrangements, when old Van Quintem's wish was mentioned to
her. The sacrifice was a great one; and Mrs. Crull would make it only on
condition that she should superintend the preparations with the same
freedom as at her own house. Old Van Quintem consented to this, only
stipulating that he should pay all the bills; and, for over a week
before the wedding, Mrs. Crull, assisted by that most buxom and busy of
women, Mrs. Frump, had taken tyrannical possession of the dwelling, and
made such extraordinary transpositions of the carpets and pictures, and
other movable property, that old Van Quintem, on surveying the work of
renovation, hardly recognized the house as his own.
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