e I was obliged
to have my things mixed up with Ben's. I did not dare to
have my boxes brought down by the servants. Could you send
me the green silk in which I went to church the last two
Sundays, and my pink gauze, and the grey poplin? Please
send two or three flannel petticoats, as I could not put
them among his things, and as many cuffs and collars as
you can cram in. I suppose I can get boots at Ostend,
but I should like to have the hat with the little brown
feather. There is my silk jacket with the fur trimming;
I should like to have that. I suppose I shall have to be
married without any regular dress, but I am sure papa will
make up my trousseau to me afterwards. I lent a little
lace fichu to Augusta; tell her that I shall so like to
have it.

Give papa my best love, and Augusta, and poor Tom, and
accept the same from your affectionate daughter,

GERTRUDE.

I suppose I must not add the other name yet.

Sir Thomas did not receive the telegram till eleven o'clock, when he
returned from dinner, and could do nothing that night. On the next
morning he was disturbed soon after five o'clock by Tom, who had come
on the same errand. "Idiots!" exclaimed Sir Thomas, "What on earth
can they have gone to Ostend for? And what can you do by coming up?"

"My mother thought that I might follow them to Ostend."

"They wouldn't care for you. No one will care for you until you have
got rid of all this folly. I must go. Idiots! Who is to marry them at
Ostend? If they are fools enough to want to be married, why shouldn't
they get married in England?"

"I suppose they thought you wouldn't consent."

"Of course I shan't consent. But why should I consent a bit more
because they have gone to Ostend? I don't suppose anybody ever had
such a set of fools about him as I have." This would have been hard
upon Tom had it not been that he had got beyond the feeling of any
hardness from contempt or contumely. As he once said of himself,
all sense of other injury had been washed out of him by Ayala's
unkindness.

On that very day Sir Thomas started for Ostend, and reached the place
about two o'clock. Captain Batsby and Gertrude had arrived only
during the previous night, and Gertrude, as she had been very sick,
was still in bed. Captain Batsby was not in bed. Captain Batsby had
been engaged since an early hour in the morning looking for that
respectable clergyman of the Church of