1888. Deland's career began in the greeting card business. The story begins: The evening before Helen Jeffrey's wedding day, the whole household at the rectory came out into the garden. The fact is, said Dr. Howe, smiling good-naturedly at his niece, the importance of this occasion has made everybody so full of suppressed excitement one can't breathe in the house. And indeed a wedding in Ashurst had all the charm of novelty. Why, bless my soul, said the rector, let me see: it must be ten-no, twelve years since Mary Drayton was married, and that was our last wedding. Well, we couldn't stand such dissipation oftener; it would wake us up. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.