of Carlton Abbey, received the visits of the neighboring
families, inspected the newly improvised cavalry, mustered and feasted
the tenantry, and made known to all concerned that they intended to
reside, for at least four months in each year, at the Abbey, then took
their departure, leaving a very favorable impression behind them.

On the return to London of Edith and Arthur from their wedding tour,
they were presented at Court. The Queen seemed to take considerable
interest in the handsome Earl and his beautiful Countess, for His
Excellency the Commander-in-chief had mentioned to Her Majesty some of
Arthur's gallant exploits while in India, and the romantic train of
events that had happened to both Earl and Countess prior to their
marriage. As a mark of royal favor they were invited to Windsor Castle.
This, in itself, was sufficient to give them _eclat_ in the highest
circles. They gave a series of brilliant entertainments in Saint James'
Square, which hundreds of the highest in the land made a point of
attending. Fortunately the London season was at its close; this allowed
Edith to carry out her long-cherished wish to return to Vellenaux as
its honoured mistress. There were associations connected with it that
could not be effaced by all the gaieties of the most magnificent courts
of Europe. Arthur too was somewhat tired of the exciting life they had
led for some months past, and was anxious to re-visit the quiet spot
where the happiest years of his early life had been spent; accordingly
they left London for their old home among the beech woods of Devon.

The day of high jubilee, the day of feasting and merriment, such as had
never been witnessed in Vellenaux by its oldest inhabitant, at length
arrived. High and low, rich and poor of the village and for miles
around, turned out in holiday costume to witness the return of Edith and
Arthur to their childhood's happy home. Triumphal arches of eve greens
and flags had been erected at different places between Switchem station
and the Park gates. The two troops of volunteer cavalry that had been
raised from among the tenantry of Carlton Abbey and Vellenaux, armed and
equipped at the expense of the Earl and Countess, already licked into
something like order and discipline by the non-commissioned officers of
the regular service, procured through Arthur's interest at the Horse
Guards, lined both sides of the road between the arches. Several bands
of music, sent down from London