ly sealed by Gilbert's hand.

For some days there was silence, and no one knew what turn events had
taken, and there was no answer to the letters.

A week passed, and then came a letter from Charlotte herself.

"MY DEAR JOYCE,--You will see by the date of this letter I am at
Bath. I was married to dear Lord Maythorne yesterday. He wished for
a very quiet wedding, and he had a special license, and the
ceremony was performed at St. Cuthbert's. Dear auntie was present,
and dear Gratian and Melville came in from Fair Acres. We went to
the 'Swan,' and had an elegant breakfast, and then we posted here.
It is very strange to me to feel I am Lady Maythorne; but with such
a _dear_, _kind_, delightful husband, I ought to be happy. Pray
accept kind love from us both.

"Your truly affectionate cousin,
"CHARLOTTE MAYTHORNE.

"Pulteney Street, Bath,
"_November 14th, 1831._"

This, then, was the end of Miss Falconer's training, this the reward for
all her care; and the strange part of it was that, though Lord
Maythorne's own relations were distressed and sad, at the thought of
Charlotte's folly in committing herself to the tender mercies of such a
man, Miss Falconer was _not_ distressed.

Gratian, who came in to spend a day or two in Clifton with her
husband soon after, gave a graphic description of the whole affair.

[Illustration: Wells Cathedral from Bishop's Fields]

Miss Falconer, she declared, was tearful, but in her secret heart
elated. Charlotte would grace any position, Lord Maythorne said. She was
strikingly like in manner and voice and bearing to a reigning beauty at
one of the German baths.

"We are none of us likely to go there, you know," Gratian said, "so we
can't vouch for the truth of this."

Then he told Miss Falconer that Charlotte should be placed in the "book
of Beauty" next season, and that a friend of his had promised to write a
little sketch of her.

Aunt Letitia said she was _glad_ to be able to assure Lord Maythorne
that the Falconers were an ancient race, and had been landed gentry for
generations.

"Poor dear old lady," Gratian continued, "the only note of lament was,
'What will Mrs. Hannah More say?' She took such a deep interest in dear
Charlotte and, perhaps, I may wish, as _she_ will, that Lord Maythorne
was more strictly a religious man. But we cannot hope for everything,
and dear Charlotte's training has been so careful, tha