t to his bed. Such are the
petty accidents affecting circumstances. They are the instruments of
Destiny.

There he lay, protesting that the ceremony could not possibly be for the
fourteenth, because Countess Livia had, he now remembered, written of
her engagement to meet Russett on the night of that day at a ball at
Mrs. Cowper Quillett's place, Canleys, lying south of the Surrey hills:
a house famed for its gatherings of beautiful women; whither Lord
Fleetwood would be sure to engage to go, the admiral now said; and it
racked him like gout in his mind, and perhaps troubled his conscience
about handing the girl to such a young man. But he was lying on his
back, the posture for memory to play the fiend with us, as we read in
the BOOK of MAXIMS of the Old Buccaneer. Admiral Baldwin wished heartily
to be present at his Crinny's wedding 'to see her launched,' if
wedding it was to be, and he vowed the date of the fourteenth, in Lord
Levellier's announcement of it, must be an error and might be a month
in advance, and ought to be. But it was sheer talking and raving for
a solace to his disappointment or his anxiety. He had to let Carinthia
Jane depart under the charge of his housekeeper, Mrs. Carthew, a staid
excellent lady, poorly gifted with observation.

Her report of the performance of the ceremony at Croridge village
church, a half mile from Lekkatts, was highly reassuring to the anxious
old admiral still lying on his back with memory and gout at their
fiend's play, and livid forecasts hovering. He had recollected that
there had been no allusion in Lord Levellier's message to settlements or
any lawyer's preliminaries, and he raged at himself for having to own it
would have been the first of questions on behalf of his daughter.

'All passed off correctly,' Mrs. Carthew said. 'The responses of the
bride and bridegroom were particularly articulate.'

She was reserved upon the question of the hospitality of Lekkatts. The
place had entertained her during her necessitated residence there, and
honour forbade her to smile concordantly at the rosy admiral's
mention of Leancats. She took occasion, however, to praise the Earl of
Fleetwood's eminently provident considerateness for his bride, inasmuch
as he had packed a hamper in his vehicle, which was a four-in-hand,
driven by himself.

Admiral Baldwin inquired: 'Bride inside?'

He was informed: 'The Countess of Fleetwood sat on the box on the left
of my lord.'

She had mad