atmosphere of weddings," said Mr. Gresley.
"First, Dr. Brown and Fraeulein, and now Algy Pratt and Lady Newhaven."

"I was so dreadfully afraid that Fraeulein might think our arch was put
up for her, and presume upon it," said Mrs. Gresley, "that I thought it
better to send her a little note, just to welcome her cordially, and
tell her how busy we were about the Pratt festivities, and what a
_coincidence_ it was her arriving on the same day. I told her I would
send down the children to spend the morning with her to-morrow. I knew
that would please her, and it is Miss Baker's day in Southminster with
her aunt, and I shall really be too busy to see after them. In some ways
I don't like Miss Baker as much as Fraeulein. She is paid just the same,
but she does much less, and she is really quite short sometimes if I ask
her to do any little thing for me, like copying out that church music."

"Hester used to do it," said Mr. Gresley.

"Miss Brown told me she had heard from Hester, and that she and Miss
West are still in India. And they mean to go to Australia and New
Zealand, and come home next spring."

"Was Hester well?"

"Quite well. You know, James, I always told you that hers was not a
genuine illness. That was why they would not let us see her. It was only
hysteria, which girls get when they are disappointed at not marrying,
and are not so young as they were. Directly poor Mr. Scarlett died,
Hester left her room, and devoted herself to Miss West, and Dr. Brown
said it was the saving of her. But for my part I always thought Hester
took in Dr. Brown and the Bishop about that illness."

"I should not wonder if Hester married Dick Vernon," said Mr. Gresley.
"It is rather marked, their going to Australia when he went back there
only a few months ago. If she had consulted me I should have advised her
not to follow him up."

A burst of cheering, echoed by piercing howls from Boulou locked up in
the empty nursery.

"I hope Miss Baker has put the children in a good place. She is sure to
be in a good one herself," said Mrs. Gresley, as she and her husband
took up their position by the gate.

More cheering! A sudden flourish of trumpets and a trombone from the
volunteer band at the corner, of which Mr. Pratt was colonel.

A clatter of four white horses and an open carriage. A fleeting vision
of Captain Pratt, white waistcoat, smile, teeth, eye-glass, hat waved in
lavender-kid hand! A fleeting vision of a lovely woman in