ged wings were beating
vainly against the wicker-work, until he wearily gave up the attempt,
and sat quietly on the perch, drooping his tired head.

"He is not satisfied," resumed Agnes in a low tone. "He is only weary.
He is not happy--only too worn-out to care for happiness. Ah, holy
Virgin! how many of us women are so! And she was wont to say that there
was happiness in this life, yet not in this world. It lay, she said, in
that other world above, where God sitteth; and if we would ask for Him
that was meant by the better water, it would come and dwell in our
hearts along with Him. Our sweet Lady help us! we seem to have missed
it somehow."

"I have, at any rate," whispered Philippa, her eyes fixed dreamily on
the weary lark.

CHAPTER THREE.

GUY OF ASHRIDGE.

"For merit lives from man to man,
And not from man, O Lord, to Thee."

Tennyson.

Not until the evening before her marriage did Philippa learn the name of
her new master. The Earl's choice, she was then informed, had fallen on
Sir Richard Sergeaux, a knight of Cornwall, who would receive divers
manors with the hand of the eldest daughter of Arundel. Philippa was,
however, not told that Sir Richard was expected to pay for the grants
and the alliance in extremely hard cash.

For to the lofty position of eldest daughter of Arundel (for that
morning only) Philippa, to her intense surprise, found herself suddenly
lifted. She was robed in cloth of silver; her hair flowed from beneath
a jewelled golden fillet; her neck was encircled by rubies, and a ruby
and pearl girdle clasped her waist. She felt all the time as though she
were dreaming, especially when the Lady Alianora herself superintended
her arraying, and even condescended to remark that "the Lady Philippa
did not look so very unseemly after all."

Not least among the points which astonished her was the resumption of
her title. She did not know that this had formed a part of the bargain
with Sir Richard, who had proved impracticable on harder terms. He did
not mind purchasing the eldest daughter of Arundel at the high price set
upon her; but he gave the Earl distinctly to understand that if he were
merely selling a Mistress Philippa, there must be a considerable
discount.

When the ceremony and the wedding festivities were over, and her palfrey
was standing ready at the door, Philippa timidly entered the
banqueting-hall, to ask--for the first and last time--her father's
bless