hed to witness at
present; but she saw Louis bent on having her with him, and would not
vex him by reluctance. He had also prevailed on his father to be
present, though the Earl was much afraid of establishing a precedent,
and being asked to act the part of father on future contingencies.
There was only one bride, as he told Louis, whom he could ever wish to
give away. However, that trouble was spared him by Mr. Mansell; but
still Louis would not let him off, on the plea that James's side of the
house should make as imposing a demonstration as possible.

Mrs. Frost was less manageable. Though warmly invited by the Conways,
and fondly entreated by her grandson, she shook her head, and said she
was past those things, and that the old mother always stayed at home to
cook the wedding dinner. She should hear all when Clara came home the
next day, and should be ready for the happy pair when they would return
for Christmas, after a brief stay at Thornton Conway, which Isabel
wished James to see, that he might share in all her old associations.

All the rest of the party journeyed to London on a November day; and,
in gaslight and gloom, they deposited Mary at her aunt's house in
Bryanston Square.

Gaslight was the staple of Hymen's torch the next morning. London was
under one of the fogs, of which it is popularly said you may cut them
with a knife. The church was in dim twilight; the bride and bridegroom
loomed through the haze, and the indistinctness made Clara's fine tall
figure appear quite majestic above the heads of the other bridesmaids.

The breakfast was by lamp-light, and the mist looked lurid and grim
over the white cake, and no one talked of anything but the comparative
density of fogs; and Mr. Mansell's asthma had come on, and his speech
was devolved upon Lord Ormersfield, to whom Louis had imprudently
promised exemption.

What was worse, Lady Conway had paired them off in the order of
precedence; and Louis was a victim to two dowagers, between whom he
could neither see nor speak to Mary. He was the more concerned,
because he had thought her looking depressed and avoiding his eye.

He tried to believe this caution, but he thought she was also eluding
his father, and her whole air gave him a vague uneasiness. The whole
party were to dine with Lady Conway; and, trusting in the meantime to
discover what was on her spirits, he tried to resign himself to the
order of the day, without a farther glimpse of he