nd
trouble, and that it had taken place in town five days ago. To him no
further explanations were made, but he seemed to understand it as well
as the most grown-up person among them all.

This sudden step, which put all the power in Theo's hands to thwart
the lawyers and regulate matters at his own pleasure, made him at once
completely subservient to them, accepting everything which he had
struggled against before. He took up his abode at Markland with his wife
without so much as a protest; from thence he found it an amusement to
watch the slow progress of the works at the Warren, riding over two or
three times a week, sometimes accompanied by Geoff on his pony, sometimes
by Geoff's mother, who it appeared could ride very well too. And when
they went into society it was as Lady Markland and Mr. Warrender. Even
on this point, without a word, Theo had given in.

There was, of course, a great outcry in the county about this almost
runaway marriage. It was not dignified for Lady Markland, people said;
but there were some good-natured souls who said they did not wonder, for
that a widow's wedding was not a pretty spectacle like a young girl's,
and of course there were always embarrassments, especially with a child
so old as Geoff. What could his mother have done with him, had he been
present at the wedding, and he must have been present at the wedding, if
it had been performed in the ordinary way. Poor little Geoff! If only
the new husband would be good to him, everybody said.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

"Of course it was perfectly right. No one could say that I was in any
way infatuated about Lady Markland, never from the first: but I quite
approve of that. Why should she call herself Mrs. Theodore Warrender,
when she has the title of a viscountess? If it had been a trumpery
little baronetcy," said Minnie, strong in her new honours, "that
would have been quite a different matter; but why should one give
up one's precedency, and all that? I should not at all like to have Mrs.
Wilberforce, for instance, or any other person of her class, walk out of
a room before me--now."

"Nor me, I suppose," Mrs. Warrender said, with a smile.

"Oh, you! that is different of course," said the Hon. Mrs. Eustace
Thynne; but though she was good enough to say this, it was very evident
that even for her mother Minnie had no idea of waiving her rights. "When
a thing is understood it is so much easier," she added, "every one must
see that. B