time she saw next to nothing of Maurice Kynaston; the weather
was mild and open, and he went out hunting every day. Sir John, on the
other hand, was much with her; a constant necessity for his presence
seemed to possess her. She was never thoroughly content but when he was
with her; ever restless and ill at ease in his absence.

No one could be more thoroughly convinced than Vera of the entire wisdom
of the marriage she was about to make. It was, she felt persuaded, the
best and the happiest thing she could have done with her life. Wealth,
position, affection, were all laid at her feet; and her husband,
moreover, would be a man whose goodness and whose devotion to her could
never fail to command her respect. What more could a woman who, like
herself, was fully alive to the importance of the good things of this
world desire? Surely nothing more. Vera, when she was left alone with
the glories of her wedding garment, took herself to task for her foolish
words to her sister.

"I am a fool!" she said to herself, half angrily, as she bundled all the
white silk and the rich lace unceremoniously away into an empty drawer of
her wardrobe. "I am a fool to say such things even to Marion. It looks,
as she says, as if I were being forced into a rich marriage by my
friends. I am very fond of John; I shall make him a most exemplary wife,
and I shall look remarkably well in the family diamonds, and that is all
that can possibly be required of me."

Having thus settled things comfortably in her own mind, she went
downstairs again, and was in such good spirits, and so radiant with
smiles for the rest of the evening, that Mr. Daintree remarked to his
wife, when they had retired into their conjugal chamber, that he had
never seen Vera look so well or so happy.

"Dear child," he said, "it is a great comfort to me to see it, for just
at first I feared that she had been influenced by the money and the
position, and that her heart was not in it; but now she has evidently
become much attached to Sir John, and is perfectly happy; and he is a
most excellent man, and in every way worthy of her. Did I tell you,
Marion, that he told me the chancel should be begun immediately after the
wedding? It is a pity it could not have been done before; but we shall
just get it finished by Easter."

"I am glad of that. We must fill the church with flowers for the 27th,
and then its appalling ugliness will not be too visible. Of course, the
building could h