said Mrs. Berry, pursing prophetic wrinkles: "he'll
come of his own accord. Never anywhere will he meet such a cook as Bessy
Berry! And he know her value in his heart of hearts. And I do believe,
when he do come, I shall be opening these arms to him again, and not
slapping his impidence in the face--I'm that soft! I always was--in
matrimony, Mr. Richards!"

As when nations are secretly preparing for war, the docks and arsenals
hammer night and day, and busy contractors measure time by inches, and
the air hums around: for leagues as it were myriads of bees, so the house
and neighbourhood of the matrimonial soft one resounded in the heroic
style, and knew little of the changes of light decreed by Creation. Mrs.
Berry was the general of the hour. Down to Doctors' Commons she expedited
the hero, instructing him how boldly to face the Law, and fib: for that
the Law never could mist a fib and a bold face. Down the hero went, and
proclaimed his presence. And lo! the Law danced to him its sedatest
lovely bear's-dance. Think ye the Lawless susceptible to him than flesh
and blood? With a beautiful confidence it put the few familiar questions
to him, and nodded to his replies: then stamped the bond, and took the
fee. It must be an old vagabond at heart that can permit the irrevocable
to go so cheap, even to a hero. For only mark him when he is petitioned
by heroes and heroines to undo what he does so easily! That small archway
of Doctors' Commons seems the eye of a needle, through which the lean
purse has a way, somehow, of slipping more readily than the portly; but
once through, all are camels alike, the lean purse an especially big
camel. Dispensing tremendous marriage as it does, the Law can have no
conscience.

"I hadn't the slightest difficulty," said the exulting hero.

"Of course not!" returns Mrs. Berry. "It's as easy, if ye're in earnest,
as buying a plum bun."

Likewise the ambassador of the hero went to claim the promise of the
Church to be in attendance on a certain spot, on a certain day, and there
hear oath of eternal fealty, and gird him about with all its forces:
which the Church, receiving a wink from the Law, obsequiously engaged to
do, for less than the price of a plum-cake.

Meantime, while craftsmen and skilled women, directed by Mrs. Berry, were
toiling to deck the day at hand, Raynham and Belthorpe slept,--the former
soundly; and one day was as another to them. Regularly every morning a
letter arrived