mma, I do like to see him then. He is handsome."

"I would not have anything altered. But--but--Oh, my child, you are
going away!"

"As Mrs. Crabtree says, I sha'n't be far."

"No, no! But you won't be all mine. The time will come when you'll
think of your girls in the same way. You haven't done a thing that I
haven't seen and known and pondered over; you haven't worn a skirt but
what it has been dear to me; you haven't uttered a prayer but what I
have heard it as it went up to God's throne. I hope he says his
prayers."

"I'm sure he does," said Molly, with confidence more or less well
founded.

"Now go, and leave me here. I'm such an old stupid that I can't help
crying; and if that woman was to say anything more to me about the
chimneys I should give her a bit of my mind."

Then Molly went down with her travelling-hat on, looking twice prettier
than she had done during the whole of the morning ceremonies. It is, I
suppose, on the bridegroom's behalf that the bride is put forth in all
her best looks just as she is about to become, for the first time,
exclusively his own. Molly, on the present occasion, was very pretty,
and Joe was very proud. It was not the least of his pride that he,
feeling himself to be not quite as yet removed from the "Bung" to the
"Thorough," had married into a family by which his ascent might be
matured.

And then, as they went, came the normal shower of rice, to be picked up
in the course of the next hour by the vicarage fowls, and not by the
London beggars, and the air was darkened by a storm of old shoes. In
London, white satin slippers are the fashion. But Buston and Buntingford
combined could not afford enough of such missiles; and from the hands of
the boys black shoes, and boots too, were thrown freely. "There go my
best pair," said one of the boys, as the chariot was driven off, "and I
don't mean to let them lie there." Then the boots were recovered and
taken up to the bedroom.

Now that Molly was gone, Harry's affairs became paramount at Buston.
After all, Harry was of superior importance to Molly, though those
chimneys at Buntingford could probably give a better income than the
acres belonging to the park. But Harry was to be the future Prosper of
the county; to assume at some future time the family name; and there was
undoubtedly present to them all at the parsonage a feeling that Harry
Annesley Prosper would loom in future years a bigger squire than the
parish had ever know