necessity that could
have compelled me to act in a manner that may appear questionable.
Your feeling heart will excuse my reserve when you are informed of
the whole. In the meantime, I am only permitted to mention that this
morning I became a happy wife. With heartfelt thanks for all the
kindness I have received, I remain,

'Reverend sir,
'Your obedient servant,
'EDNA.'

'Not one message to me?' exclaimed Lucilla.

'Her not having had the impudence is the only redeeming thing!'

'I did not think she would have left no word for me,' said Lucy, who knew
she had been kinder than her wont, and was really wounded. 'Happy wife!
Who can it be?'

'Happy wife?' repeated the curate. 'It is miserable fool, most likely,
by this time.'

'No surname signed! What's the post-mark? Only Charing-cross. Could
you find out nothing, or did you not think it worth while to look?'

'What do you take me for, Cilla? I inquired at the station, but she had
not been there, and on the Monday I went to London and saw the mother,
who was in great distress, for she had had a letter much like mine, only
more unsatisfactory, throwing out absurd hints about grandeur and
prosperity--poor deluded simpleton!'

'She distinctly says she is married.'

'Yes, but she gives no name nor place. What's that worth? After such
duplicity as she has been practising so long, I don't know how to take
her statement. Those people are pleased to talk of a marriage in the
sight of heaven, when they mean the devil's own work!'

'No, no! I will not think it!'

'Then don't, my dear. You were very young and innocent, and thought no
harm.'

'I'm not young--I'm not innocent!' furiously said Cilly. 'Tell me
downright all you suspect.'

'I'm not given to suspecting,' said the poor clergyman, half in
deprecation, half in reproof; 'but I am afraid it is a bad business. If
she had married a servant or any one in her own rank, there would have
been no need of concealing the name, at least from her mother. I feared
at first that it was one of your cousin Charles's friends, but there
seems more reason to suppose that one of the musical people at your
concert at the castle may have thought her voice a good speculation for
the stage.'

'He would marry her to secure