l as an

cling

at to sing

ised her lu

t the door."-Chr

bridegroom limping down the road. He turned his mild eyes back to the

" he said almost reverently. "You h

-that his generosity is excep

e told me," added the kind old man, with a smile of appreciation at the bride-elect, "that

that her future husband was sane; but such a question must appear too eccentric for her

at a profit, has all these new intensive culture ideas, and plenty of capital to carry them out.

sted her. Her own father, living on his hereditary acres, had been in like manner devoted to the soil. At Lissendean, however, the land had starved to supply the constantly increasing demands of

pleaded solitude and boorishness as a reason for his extraordinarily abrupt tactics. If he atoned for his surprising rudeness in the matter (for instance) of her mother's ring by being good to his wife, and allowing her to have Pansy to stay with her, then she might be so nearly happy that she need waste little regret upon her o

e invalid. She had been curtly refused. He had barely time in which to catch his train to London. By way of comfort, Virgie now enlarged upon the big, beautiful garden at Omberleigh, wherein, of course, Pansy would ere

gerly. "I expect that before long lovely wedding presents will b

t ten o'clock in the morning, and I shall have to travel back to Omberleigh afterwards. I shall just w

it was for her to spend money which they had not got, and how far more honoura

heir doctor for Pansy to try the treatment he had always been so eager to recommend. Everything had to be so ordered that it might be fu

d thoughtfully on her lip, her eyes gazing gravely forth, but seeing nothing. She felt the extraordinary circumstances needed some handling. She must try to put

arest

you there was no such idea; but it is not quite as sudden as it seems, for Mr. Gaunt is a very old friend, and knew mother before I was born. He is being most incredibly good, and is to provide for mother, Pansy and Tony. Is i

relative. It is to be early in the morning, with only mothe

ll never forget all your goodne

nia M

n the handsome person of Gerald Rosenberg, would arrive to unchain her from her rock; yet the tiny chance that he might fought and struggled within her. Each time the

a consignment of wedding presents had been despatched. In fact, Mr. Rosenberg, senior, was so transported with gratitude to Virginia for refraining fr

heir hearts at being unable to give anything, until Mrs. Mynors, roused to most unexpected generosity, allowed them to go s

for reflection, until t

r great-in fact, the day was chilly and grey, with a gu

epidation had chased the pallor with which a sleepless night had invested her. Up to the last moment she had been at work upon this and that-rearranging her own room to accommodate the professional nurse who would be in charge of Pansy during her treatment, trying to think out and pla

was not the girl she took her to be; as if the poor child was abandoning her home and duties to make a rich marriage-leaving her mother to pine in the little villa, cut off from all her own set.

ing herself to her family. To admit this stunning weight of obligation must, of course, be painful. Mamma always shrank from painful things. She had discovered this pose of hers as a kind of re

and was putting up at the Ducal Arms near the station, seemed to render sleep impossible. She could

ourished for the last two years, with the sole exception of her fortnight with the Rosenbergs, during great part of which mental agitation had made it difficult for her to eat, she was in a state of real debility. Wholly inadequate did she feel for what lay before her-the new beginning, the effort to underst

in the future. She would pay his pocket money out of her own allowance. He was to j

as these lay h

re daughter. The pathos of her position-left in Laburnum Villa while Virginia went to take up a place in county society-flooded her with self-pity. Never had she felt capable of such an intensity of emotion as upon this day, when she

ng, my moth

ime for that had gone by. As she moved up the church, side by side with her daughter, she realised two things, sharply

ich her mother so clearly saw behind Gaunt's eccentric marriage. For Virginia, the old truth held good, that at the actual moment one ceases to realise what is happening. The service struck her with a sense of detachment. She heard it with interest, almost for the first time. The vows were, indeed, comprehensive. One had, however, the comforting

as no more use in wondering whet

o the newly married out of a small pastoral book. Gaunt took his wife's hand, placed it on his arm, and mar

that it pierced even through the crust of egotism. Mrs. Mynors began to gasp hysterically, but, after a moment

e the treatment she deserves," was his reply. "Come, Mrs. G

Tony. The boy was radiant, showing her with glowing eyes a sovereign which his new brother-in-law had just bestowed. The sight did more to encourage the bride than might be supposed. She kissed

he man who was to walk through life at her

, and she agreed, not knowing what he meant. He made one or two other trifling r

returning with the news that all the trunks were safe, and in the v

emarked. She could have loved him

back against the cushions. The breeze fluttered into the carriage, sweet with the breath of summer. She tried to rest, and not to think. It

introduced. He suggested marriage there and then. When will he begin to woo me? What will he tell me?

Was it possible that he divined

when the non-stop expres

ked after their baggage. Then he rejoined he

waters of the Thames, the endless movement of the traffic on

egan to make small, shy comments upon the scene, to which her husband listened tolerantly, but

ced about him, he was keenly conscious of this. Presently

most of it. You are going to be buried in t

ike would be to be buried in the heart of London. The walls in London seem as i

t like

ck to survey him. "How strange that I should know so little of your

ng of what?"

anceship," s

a taste, a habit, nor an idea that I am not intimately ac

ed; but I don't think it is

oking at his watch. "It is now five minutes to two," he went on, "and our train leaves St. Pancras at fou

, while he smoked, did not occur to her. She thanked him quite eagerly, a maid was summoned, and she was shown into a room with a de

er. She went down to the entrance hall after her rest, feeling much mor