ould look," here interposed Prudence, very
sensibly.

"It is time that I were attending to my own apparelling, which, in
looking at thee, I quite forgot," said the widow, rising, and leaving
the apartment.

The marriage, which took place at the house of the Governor, was
private, and attended only by some of the principal personages of the
colony and their families. Besides the Knight of the Golden Melice,
Sir Richard Saltonstall, who was to sail in the same ship with the
young people, came with his two daughters, as did also Master Increase
Nowell, and Master Bradstreet. No minister was present, the order
resenting, it may be, in a quiet way, an invasion of their
prerogative, which excluded them from business of this sort; but in
the solemn and graceful manner in which the accomplished Winthrop
performed the ceremony, no one noticed any deficiency, not even
Eveline herself, who, indeed, was thinking of other matters. Winthrop
concluded his part with a little speech, in which he reminded the
young couple of the new duties they had assumed, and of the loving
mystery whereby two souls were united into one, like two brooks,
which, pouring each into the other their bright waters, flow on,
inseparably joined, to the ocean of eternity. Something he said, too,
of the blessedness of a true faith, as a crowning glory, without which
the world was but an unprofitable desert.

Scarcely had the congratulations which followed the sweet voice of the
Governor ceased, when a stranger, an honored friend of Master
Bradstreet, and who had come with him, stepped forward, and saluting
Arundel by the title of the Earl of Cliffmere, informed him that he
had matters of importance to communicate.

"I had waited upon you, my lord, before," he said, "even upon the
instant of my arrival, had I known where to find you; but I suspected
you not under your assumed name."

"I welcome you," said the Earl, advancing and taking the stranger's
hand, "I welcome you, Master Hatherly, to the new world, which I this
day leave, probably forever. As for thy news, I think thou art
anticipated: I am informed by letters brought by the vessel wherein
you came, that my father and eldest brother are no more, and that the
coronet which I would willingly place upon their living brows, alas,
is mine. Wonderful is the drama of life. I abandoned rank and
fortune," he added, looking with eyes swimming in love upon his wife,
"to seek that without which they possessed n