enly. "I have never seen such trees in my life."

She spoke truly. Giant beech-trees spread out their huge boughs on all
sides. They were trees of which any man would have been proud, because
of their beauty and magnificence. Presently from between the trees she
saw the mansion itself, Lord Arleigh touched his young wife's arm
gently.

"My darling," he said, "that is home."

Her face flushed, her eyes brightened, the sensitive lips quivered.

"Home!" she repeated. "How sweet the word sounds to me!" With a
tremulous smile she raised her face to his. "Nor man," she said, "do
you know that I feel very much as Lady Burleigh, the wife of Lord
Burleigh, of Stamford-town, must have felt."

"But you, Madaline," he laughed, "are not quite the simple maiden--he
wooed and won. You have the high-bred grace of a lady--nothing could rob
you of that."

"She must have been lovely and graceful to have won Lord Burleigh," she
remarked.

"Perhaps so, but not like you, Madaline--there has never been any one
quite like you. I shall feel tempted to call you 'Lady Burleigh.' Here
we are at home; and, oh, my wife, my darling, how sweet the coming home
is!"

The carriage stopped at the grand entrance. Wishing to spare his young
wife all fatigue and embarrassment, Lord Arleigh had not dispatched the
news of his marriage home, so that no one at Beechgrove expected to see
Lady Arleigh. He sent at once for the housekeeper, a tall, stately dame,
who came into the dining-room looking in unutterable amazement at the
beautiful, blushing young face.

"Mrs. Chatterton," he said, "I wish to introduce you to my wife, Lady
Arleigh."

The stately dame curtesied almost to the ground.

"Welcome home, my Lady," she said, deferentially. "If I had known that
your ladyship was expected I would have made more befitting
preparations."

"Nothing could be better--you have everything in admirable order,"
responded Lord Arleigh, kindly.

Then the housekeeper turned with a bow to her master.

"I did not know that you were married, my lord," she said.

"No, Mrs. Chatterton; for reasons of my own, I hurried on my marriage.
No one shall lose by the hurry, though"--which she knew meant a promise
of handsome bounty.

Presently the housekeeper went with Lady Arleigh to her room.

The grandeur and magnificence of the house almost startled her. She felt
more like Lady Burleigh than ever, as she went up the broad marble
staircase and saw the long corridors