, and ever so much money to buy
bonnets and gloves."

"He is to be married himself soon,--down at a place called Monkhams.
Nora is staying there."

"Yes;--with a lord," said Priscilla. "We sha'n't have to go there, at
any rate."

"You liked Nora when she was here?"

"Very much;--though I thought her self-willed. But she is not
worldly, and she is conscientious. She might have married that lord
herself if she would. I do like her. When she comes to you at Exeter,
if the wedding gown isn't quite worn out, I shall come and see her. I
knew she liked him when she was here, but she never said so."

"She is very pretty, is she not? He sent me her photograph."

"She is handsome rather than pretty. I wonder why it is that you two
should be married, and so grandly married, and that I shall never,
never have any one to love."

"Oh, Priscilla, do not say that. If I have a child will you not love
it?"

"It will be your child;--not mine. Do not suppose that I complain.
I know that it is right. I know that you ought to be married and I
ought not. I know that there is not a man in Devonshire who would
take me, or a man in Devonshire whom I would accept. I know that I am
quite unfit for any other kind of life than this. I should make any
man wretched, and any man would make me wretched. But why is it so? I
believe that you would make any man happy."

"I hope to make Brooke happy."

"Of course you will, and therefore you deserve it. We'll go home now,
dear, and get mamma's things ready for the great day."

On the afternoon before the great day all the visitors were to come,
and during the forenoon old Miss Stanbury was in a great fidget.
Luckily for Dorothy, her own preparations were already made, so that
she could give her time to her aunt without injury to herself. Miss
Stanbury had come to think of herself as though all the reality of
her life had passed away from her. Every resolution that she had
formed had been broken. She had had the great enemy of her life,
Barty Burgess, in the house with her upon terms that were intended
to be amicable, and had arranged with him a plan for the division of
the family property. Her sister-in-law, whom in the heyday of her
strength she had chosen to regard as her enemy, and with whom even as
yet there had been no reconciliation, was about to become her guest,
as was also Priscilla,--whom she had ever disliked almost as much as
she had respected. She had quarrelled utterly with Hugh,