h of defiance in
her voice. It was so undisguisedly auburn that probably only Jane
Erskine and Peter ever believed that it was not dyed.

'What were we talking about?' she said presently. 'Oh yes, I was
saying that you were not tiresome although you are engaged to be
married. You are not even quite uninteresting, although you are
healthy and happy! All the same, I am going to try and persuade you
and Peter to have the wedding sooner than you intended.'

'Why?' said Jane simply.

'I am sick of Bowshott,' said Mrs. Ogilvie lightly. 'By the by, I
believe I am going to make it over to you and Peter when you marry.
Why should I act as custodian to a lot of grimy pictures, which don't
amuse me the least bit in the world, or walk in these formal gardens,
where I don't even meet a gardener after ten o'clock? A prison life
would really be a pleasant change! I shall go to London when you are
married; it is the only place--except Paris--where one lives. I must
have the house in Berkeley Square painted. And, oh! there are heaps of
things I want to do; must I really go into them all?

'When is the wedding to be?' asked old Lord Sherard, sinking on to the
sofa beside Miss Erskine, when he and the other gentlemen returned from
the dining-room.

'Jane and I have just been deciding that the wedding is to take place
in the middle of October,' replied Mrs. Ogilvie in her cool, decisive
voice.

Jane laughed and caught Peter's eye, and he drew her aside when he
could, and asked for further confirmation of a change of plans of which
he thoroughly approved.

There was no reason for delay; the building and repairing of the tower
would hardly interfere with the other parts of the vast house. Jane,
like Peter, was quite satisfied that their wedding should be at an
earlier date than was at first suggested. They had known each other
all their lives; why postpone the happy time when they should be
married?

So wedding invitations were written and despatched, and wedding gowns
were ordered, and wedding presents came in. Tenants presented silver
bowls and trays, and servants gave clocks and illuminated addresses,
and the Ogilvie family lawyer came down with his clerk to stay, and was
hidden away somewhere in the big house, where he wrote busily all day,
and made wills and transferred deeds, and wanted signatures for this
thing and for that through half the autumn mornings.

'I see nothing for it,' said Jane, 'but to postpone g