s dreadful to sit at table a whole
hour, and be bored by seeing other people eat, and pretending to eat
yourself, when you are not hungry. Well, there's no help for it. Come
down and be bored, Ishmael."

They went down into the drawing room, where quite a large circle of near
family connections were assembled.

Walter Middleton was presented to the Viscount Vincent, who was the only
stranger, to him, present.

Claudia was there, looking as calm, as self-possessed and queenly, as if
she had not passed through a storm of passion two hours before.

Ishmael glanced at her and saw the change with amazement, but he dared
not trust himself to look again.

The dinner party, with all this trouble under the surface, passed off in
superficial gayety. The guests separated early, because the following
morning would usher in the wedding day.

CHAPTER LXVI.

THE MARRIAGE MORNING.

I trust that never more in this world's shade
Thine eyes will be upon me: never more
Thy face come back to me. For thou hast made
My whole life sore.
Fare hence, and be forgotten.... Sing thy song,
And braid thy brow,
And be beloved and beautiful--and be
In beauty baleful still ... a Serpent Queen
To others not yet curst in loving thee
As I have been!

--_Meredith_.

Ishmael awoke. After a restless night, followed by an hour't complete
forgetfulness, that more nearly resembled the swoon of exhaustion than
the sleep of health, Ishmael awoke to a new sense of wretchedness.

You who have suffered know what such awakenings are. You have seen
someone dearer than life die; but hours, days, or weeks of expectation
have gradually prepared you for the last scene; and though you have seen
the dear one die, and though you have wept yourself half blind and half
dead, you have slept the sleep of utter oblivion, which is like death;
but you have at last awakened and returned to consciousness to meet the
shock of memory and the sense of sorrow a thousand times more
overwhelming than the first blow of bereavement had been.

Or you have been for weeks looking forward to the parting of one whose
presence is the very light of your days. And in making preparations for
that event the thought of coming separation has been somewhat dulled;
but at last all is ready; the last night has come; you all separate and
go to bed, with the mutual injunction to be up early in the morning for
the sake of seeing "him"--it may