ful to Rachel,--not the less so perhaps because Mrs.
Prime was away at a Dorcas meeting. Had she been at the cottage all
those pleasant allusions to the transactions at the ball would hardly
have been made. "Don't tell me," said Mrs. Cornbury. "Do you think I
couldn't see how it was going to be with half an eye? I told Walter
that very night that he was a goose to suppose that you would go down
to supper with him."

"But, Mrs. Cornbury, I really intended it; only they had another
dance, and I was obliged to stand up with Mr. Rowan because I was
engaged to him."

"I don't doubt you were engaged to him, my dear."

"Only for that dance, I mean."

"Only for that dance, of course. But now you are engaged to him for
something else, and I tell you that I knew it was going to be so."

All this was very pretty and very pleasant; and when Mrs. Cornbury,
as she went away, made a special request that she might be invited to
the wedding, Rachel was supremely happy.

"Mamma," she said, "I do love that woman. I hardly know why, but I do
love her so much."

"It was always the same with Patty Comfort," said Mrs. Ray. "She had
a way of making people fond of her. They say that she can do just
what she likes with the old gentleman at the Grange."

It may be well that I should declare here that there was no scrutiny
as to the return of Butler Cornbury to Parliament,--to the great
satisfaction both of old Mr. Cornbury and of old Mr. Comfort. They
had been brought to promise that the needful funds for supporting
the scrutiny should be forthcoming; but the promise had been made
with heavy hearts, and the tidings of Mr. Hart's quiescence had been
received very gratefully both at Cornbury and at Cawston.

Luke and Rachel were married on New Year's Day at Cawston church, and
afterwards made a short marriage trip to Penzance and the Land's End.
It was cold weather for pleasure-travelling; but snow and winds and
rain affect young married people less, I think, than they do other
folk. Rachel when she returned could not bear to be told that it had
been cold. There was no winter, she said, at Penzance,--and so she
continued to say ever afterwards.

Mrs. Ray would not consent to abandon the cottage at Bragg's End. She
still remained its occupier in conjunction with Mrs. Prime, but she
passed more than half her time at the brewery. Mrs. Prime is still
Mrs. Prime; and will, I think, remain so, although Mr. Prong is
occasionally seen to call