at
muslin dress, then I cannot see why you should not wear your
grandmother's wedding veil," she had exclaimed--and again Rose had given
in.

Poor old Anna! It was a day of days for her--far more a day of days than
had been the marriage of her own daughter. Yet Louisa Bauer's wedding
had been a great festival. And the old woman remembered what pains Mrs.
Otway had taken to make that marriage of five years ago, as far as was
possible in such a very English place as Witanbury, a German bridal. In
those days they had none of them guessed what an unsatisfactory fellow
George Pollit was going to turn out; and Louisa had gone to her new home
with quite a German trousseau--that is, with what would have appeared to
English eyes stacks of under-clothing, each article beautifully
embroidered with a monogram and lavishly trimmed with fine crochet; each
set tied up with a washing band or _Waschebander_, a strip of canvas
elaborately embroidered in cross-stitch.

It seemed strangely sad and unnatural that Anna's gracious young lady
should have no trousseau at all! But that doubtless would come
afterwards, and she, Anna, felt sure that she would be allowed to have a
hand in choosing it. This thought was full of consolation, as was also
her secret supposition that the future trousseau would be paid for by
the bridegroom.

There was certainly cause for satisfaction in that thought, for Anna had
become conscious of late that her dear mistress felt anxious about
money. Prices were going up, but thanks to her, Anna's, zealous care,
the housekeeping bills at the Trellis House were still kept wonderfully
low. It was unfortunate that Mrs. Otway, being the kind of gracious
lady she was, scarcely gave Anna sufficient credit for this. It was not
that she was ungrateful, it was simply that she did not think anything
about it--she only remembered that she was short of money when the
household books were there, open in front of her.

CHAPTER XXV

And now the small group of men and women who were to be present at the
marriage of Rose Otway and Jervis Blake were gathered together in Mrs.
Robey's large drawing-room. Seven people in all, for the Dean had not
yet arrived.

In addition to the master and mistress of the hospitable house in which
they now all found themselves, there were there Sir John and Lady Blake;
Miss Forsyth--who, alone of the company, had dressed herself with a
certain old-fashioned magnificence; Sir Jacques, who ha