ome, but, on
the whole, pleased everybody. They were both of them popular, and no one
seemed to envy them their happiness and prosperity. The union took place
at a season of the year when there was no London world to observe and to
criticise. It was a quiet ceremony; they went down to Northumberland
to Lady Montfort's father, and they were married in his private chapel.
After that they went off immediately to pay a visit to King Florestan
and his queen; Myra had sent her a loving letter.

"Perhaps it will be the first time that your sister ever saw me with
satisfaction," remarked Lady Montfort, "but I think she will love me
now! I always loved her; perhaps because she is so like you."

It was a happy meeting and a delightful visit. They did not talk much of
the past. The enormous change in the position of their host and hostess
since the first days of their acquaintance, and, on their own part, some
indefinite feeling of delicate reserve, combined to make them rather
dwell on a present which was full of novelty so attractive and so
absorbing. In his manner, the king was unchanged; he was never a
demonstrative person, but simple, unaffected, rather silent; with a
sweet temper and a tender manner, he seemed to be gratified that he had
the power of conferring happiness on those around him. His feeling to
his queen was one of idolatry, and she received Berengaria as a sister
and a much-loved one. Their presence and the season of the year made
their life a festival, and when they parted, there were entreaties and
promises that the visit should be often repeated.

"Adieu! my Endymion," said Myra at the last moment they were alone. "All
has happened for you beyond my hopes; all now is safe. I might wish we
were in the same land, but not if I lost my husband, whom I adore."

The reason that forced them to curtail their royal visit was the state
of politics at home, which had suddenly become critical. There were
symptoms, and considerable ones, of disturbance and danger when
they departed for their wedding tour, but they could not prevail on
themselves to sacrifice a visit on which they had counted so much,
and which could not be fulfilled on another occasion under the same
interesting circumstances. Besides, the position of Mr. Ferrars, though
an important, was a subordinate one, and though cabinet ministers were
not justified in leaving the country, an under-secretary of state and
a bridegroom might, it would seem, depart o