o suppose (as Lady Enville had once said flippantly) that
"there were no promises in the Bible to old maids?"

Were there not these glorious two?--the one promise of the Old Covenant,
the one promise of the New.

"Even unto them will I give in Mine house and within My walls a place
and a name better than of sons and of daughters; I will give them an
everlasting name, that shall not be cut off." [Isaiah sixteen verse 5.]

"These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. These
were redeemed from among men, being the first-fruits unto God and to the
Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile; for they are without fault
before the throne of God." [Revelations fourteen verses 4, 5.]

So Clare was content. Yet it was a sorrowful sort of content, after
all--for Clare was human, too.

She was absently pulling off some dead leaves from the arbour, and the
sudden jump which she gave showed how much she was startled.

"May I come in, Clare?" asked a voice at the entrance.

"Oh, ay--come in," said Clare, in a flutter, and trembling all over.

"I did not mean to fright you," said Arthur, with a smile, as he came
inside and sat down. "I desired speech of you, on a matter whereof I
could not well touch save in private. Clare,--may I speak,--dear
Clare?"

But of course, dear reader, you know all about it.

So Clare was first with somebody, after all.

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Note 1. A price which, about sixty years before, a vice-queen had
thought sufficient in presenting a new year's gift to Queen Anne Boleyn.
John Husee writes to his mistress, Honour Viscountess Lisle, in 1534,
that he has obtained the kersey for her gift to the Queen, eleven and a
quarter yards at 5 shillings the yard, "very fine and very white."
(Lisle Papers, twelve 90.) A few weeks later he writes, "The Queen's
grace liketh your kersey specially well." (Lisle Papers, eleven 112.)

Note 2. The disuse of this custom in England really dates from a rather
later period. `Sister' has somewhat resumed its position, but
`Daughter' and `Niece,' in the vocative, are never heard amongst us now.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

"DIEU LA VOULU."

"Over himself and his own heart's complaining
Victorious still."

The bells were pealing merrily for the marriage of Clare Avery--I beg
her pardon--of Clare Tremayne; and the wedding party were seated at
breakfast in the great hall at Enville Co