at Aunt Bridget, with something of the instinct of the fly
about the flame, immediately fixed herself upon the one, and that Betsy
Beauty attached herself to the other.

Lord Raa himself looked as tired as before, and for the first half-hour
he behaved as if he did not quite know what to do with himself for
wretchedness and _ennui_.

Then the deeds were opened and spread out on a table, and though the
gentlemen seemed to be trying not to discuss the contents aloud I could
not help hearing some of the arrangements that had been made for the
payment of my intended husband's debts, and certain details of his
annual allowance.

Looking back upon that ugly hour, I wonder why, under the circumstances,
I should have been so wounded, but I remember that a sense of discomfort
amounting to shame came upon me at sight of the sorry bargaining. It
seemed to have so little to do with the spiritual union of souls, which
I had been taught to think marriage should be. But I had no time to
think more about that before my father, who had signed the documents
himself in his large, heavy hand, was saying.

"Now, gel, come along, we're waiting for your signature."

I cannot remember that I read anything. I cannot remember that anything
was read to me. I was told where to sign, and I signed, thinking what
must be must be, and that was all I had to do with the matter.

I was feeling a little sick, nevertheless, and standing by the tire
with one foot on the fender, when Lord Raa came up to me at the end, and
said in his drawling voice:

"So it's done."

"Yes, it's done," I answered.

After a moment he talked of where we were to live, saying we must of
course pass most of our time in London.

"But have you any choice about the honeymoon," he said, "where we should
spend it, I mean?"

I answered that he would know best, but when he insisted on my choosing,
saying it was my right to do so, I remembered that during my time in the
Convent the one country in the world I had most desired to see was the
Holy Land.

Never as long as I live shall I forget the look in his lordship's grey
eyes when I gave this as my selection.

"You mean Jerusalem--Nazareth--the Dead Sea and all that?" he asked.

I felt my face growing red as at a frightful _faux pas_, but his
lordship only laughed, called me his "little nun," and said that since I
had been willing to leave the choice to him he would suggest Egypt and
Italy, and Berlin and Paris on the wa