from the same. But if she hath told you, Sir, that
she gave me no encouragement to love and serve her, nor no hope of
wedding with her in due time,--why, then, she hath played you false as
well as me."

It was manifest that Arthur was not only much distressed, but also very
angry.

"And thou never spakest word to me, my son!" came in gentle tones of
rebuke from his mother.

"Ah, the young folks make not the confessor of the father nor the
mother," said Mrs Rose smiling, and shaking her head. "It were the
better that they did it, Arthur."

"Mother, it was not my fault," pleaded Arthur earnestly. "I would have
spoken both to you and to Sir Thomas here, if she had suffered me. Only
the very last time I urged it on her--and that no further back than this
last week--she threatened me to have no further dealing with me, an' I
spake to either of you."

"Often-times," observed Mrs Rose thoughtfully, "the maidens love not
like the mothers, _mon cheri_."

"God have mercy!" groaned poor Sir Thomas, who was not least to be
pitied of the group. "I am afeared Rachel hath the right. Lucrece hath
not been true in this matter."

"There is no truth in her!" cried Arthur bitterly. "And for the matter
of that, there is none in woman!"

"_Le beau compliment_!" said his grandmother, laughing.

His mother looked reproachfully at him, but did not speak.

"And Rachel saith there is none in man," returned Sir Thomas with grim
humour. "Well-a-day! what will the world come to?"

These little pebbles in her path did not seem to trouble the easy
smoothness of Lucrece's way. She prepared her trousseau with her
customary placidity; debated measures and trimmings with her aunt as if
entirely deaf to that lady's frequent interpolations of wrath; consulted
Blanche on the style of her jewellery, and Clare on the embroidery of
her ruffs, as calmly as if there were not a shadow on her conscience nor
her heart. Perhaps there was not.

Sir Piers took Jack down to London, and settled him in his post of
deputy gentleman usher to the Queen; and at the end of six months, he
returned to Enville Court for his marriage. Everything went off with
the most absolute propriety. Lucrece's costume was irreproachable; her
manners, ditto. The festivities were prolonged over a week, and on
their close, Sir Piers and Lady Feversham set out, for their home in
Norfolk. No sign of annoyance was shown from the parsonage, except that
Arthur was not at