ese things are over now," said Mary. "Mr Gresham told me
yesterday that I should be received as Frank's future wife; and so,
you see, I have come." And then she slipped through Lady Arabella's
arms, and sat down, meekly down, on a chair. In five minutes she
had escaped with Beatrice into the school-room, and was kissing the
children, and turning over the new trousseau. They were, however,
soon interrupted, and there was, perhaps, some other kissing besides
that of the children.

"You have no business in here at all, Frank," said Beatrice. "Has he,
Mary?"

"None in the world, I should think."

"See what he has done to my poplin; I hope you won't have your things
treated so cruelly. He'll be careful enough about them."

"Is Oriel a good hand at packing up finery--eh, Beatrice?" asked
Frank.

"He is, at any rate, too well-behaved to spoil it." Thus Mary was
again made at home in the household of Greshamsbury.

Lady Arabella did not carry out her little plan of delaying the Oriel
wedding. Her idea had been to add some grandeur to it, in order to
make it a more fitting precursor of that other greater wedding which
was to follow so soon in its wake. But this, with the assistance of
the countess, she found herself able to do without interfering with
poor Mr Oriel's Sunday arrangements. The countess herself, with the
Ladies Alexandrina and Margaretta, now promised to come, even to this
first affair; and for the other, the whole de Courcy family would
turn out, count and countess, lords and ladies, Honourable Georges
and Honourable Johns. What honour, indeed, could be too great to show
to a bride who had fourteen thousand a year in her own right, or to a
cousin who had done his duty by securing such a bride to himself!

"If the duke be in the country, I am sure he will be happy to come,"
said the countess. "Of course, he will be talking to Frank about
politics. I suppose the squire won't expect Frank to belong to the
old school now."

"Frank, of course, will judge for himself, Rosina;--with his
position, you know!" And so things were settled at Courcy Castle.

And then Beatrice was wedded and carried off to the Lakes. Mary, as
she had promised, did stand near her; but not exactly in the gingham
frock of which she had once spoken. She wore on that occasion-- But
it will be too much, perhaps, to tell the reader what she wore as
Beatrice's bridesmaid, seeing that a couple of pages, at least, must
be devoted to her marri