ay to Botzen is
passable according to the prognostics of the sages. What splendid
studies of ice peaks I shall have! Your affectionate cousin,

'L. BURY.'

A telegram had preceded the letter. One soon followed by Mrs. Bury's
promised note had filled Constance's honest little heart with rapture,
another had set all the bells in Northmoor Church ringing and Best
rejoicing that 'that there Harbut's nose was put out of joint,' a feeling
wherein Lady Adela could not but participate, though, of course, she
showed no sign of it to Constance. A sharply-worded letter to the girl
soon came from her mother, demanding what she had known beforehand. Mrs.
Morton had plainly been quite unprepared for what was a severe blow to
her, and it was quite possible to understand how, in his shyness, Lord
Northmoor had put off writing of the hope and expectation from day to day
till all had been fulfilled sooner than had been expected.

It was the first thing that brought home to Constance that the event was
scarcely as delightful to her family as to herself. She wrote what she
knew and heard no more, for none of her home family were apt to favour
her with much correspondence. Miss Morton, however, had written to her
sister-in-law.

'Poor Herbert! I am sorry for him, though you won't be. He takes it
very well, he really is a very good sort at bottom, and it really is the
very best thing for him, as I have been trying to persuade him.'

Bulletins came with tolerable frequency from Ratzes, with all good
accounts of mother and child, and a particular description of little
Michael's beauties; but it was only too soon announced that snow was
falling, and this was soon followed by another letter saying that
consultation with the best authorities within reach had decided that
unless the weather were extraordinarily mild, the journey, after November
set in, was not to be ventured by Lady Northmoor or so young a child.
There would be perils for any one, even the postmen and the guides, and
if it were mild in one valley it might only render it more dangerous over
the next Alp. Still Mrs. Bury, a practised and enterprising mountaineer,
might have attempted it; but though Mary was rapidly recovering and the
language was no longer utterly impracticable, the good lady could not
bear to desert her charges, or to think what might happen to them, if
left alone, in case of illn