to him with a saucy air, which under the circumstances he
found quite pretty and pleasant:--

"So you see, there will be no need to dive deep into _your_ pocket,
father, and my things will be ever so much smarter and more up-to-date
besides."

"Ha, ha, ha!"--laughed the general.

It all came back to him now--all that rainbow period, which had just
dissolved into the grim blackness of night. He could see the merry
little chit--(as he called her then)--rustling in her new-found state
like a puffed-out Jenny Wren; he could hear her calling to Godfrey over
the stairs, and after him across the lawn; most distinctly of all, there
rose before his mind's eye the wedding day, and the round baby face
solemnised for the occasion, with its large eyes and pursed-up lips,
whence emanated the bold "I will" which startled him by its loudness and
clearness,--and yet again his own sigh of satisfaction as the well-known
march pealed out, and the pair walked down the aisle, and the thing was
done.

The thing was done, and could not be undone--he was in spirits to play
his part gloriously.

"Terrible business this, Lady St. Emeraud. Poor little girl, to have to
be called 'Mrs. Stubbs,' eh, what? Oh, bless you, yes; it's her own
doing, entirely her own doing--quite a love match,--but, well----" and
there was a shrug of the shoulders, which, however, neither took in Lady
St. Emeraud nor any one else.

"The horrid old wretch is simply gloating, and all the other girls may
follow Leonore's example with his blessing;" was her ladyship's comment.
"Stubbs--Tubbs--or Ubbs--if there is money enough, come one, come all to
the Abbey." But the speaker turned with a more kindly air to the
white-robed figure of the youthful bride, and wished her well with a
kiss--and even that kiss added to the sting of General Boldero's present
ruminations.

He had woven it into his remarks on many subsequent occasions. He called
Leonore "Lady St. Emeraud's pet". And he would put himself in her
ladyship's way when he had news of her "Pet," and tell the news with an
air of its being of special interest. "Hang it all, her ladyship ought
to have been the child's godmother, if we had had our wits about us;" he
had exclaimed within the home circle.

What would Lady St. Emeraud say now? She was a woman of the world, and
although she might choose to take up a girl after a fashion--(even he
could not magnify the passing notice bestowed into more, since it never
led t