sibility of control. Here will they feel
that they have attained the great resting-place of their life--the
resting-place of their individual lot, but only the starting-point of
their activity. Such is the work of furnishing a house once in a
lifetime. It may be a welcome task to the fine lady, decking her
drawing-room anew, to gratify her ambition, or divert her _ennui_--it
may be a satisfactory labour to the elderly couple, settling themselves
afresh when their children are dispersed abroad, and it becomes
necessary to discard the furniture that the boys have battered and
spoiled--it may be a refined amusement to the selfish man of taste,
wishing to prolong or recall the pleasures of foreign travel; but to
none is it the conscious delight that it is to young lovers and their
sympathising friends, whether the scene be the two rooms of the hopeful
young artisan, about to bring home his bride from service; or the palace
of a nobleman, enriched with intellectual luxuries for the lady of his
adoration; or the quiet abode of an unambitious professional man, whose
aim is privacy and comfort.

Margaret's delight in the process of preparation was the most intense of
all that was felt, except perhaps by one person. Mrs Grey and Sophia
enjoyed the bustle, and the consequence, and the exercise of their
feminine talents, and the gossip of the village, and the spitefulness of
Mrs Rowland's criticisms, when she had recovered from her delight at
her brother's escape from Hester, and had leisure to be offended at Mr
Hope's marrying into the Grey connexion so decidedly. The children
relished the mystery of buying their presents secretly, and hiding them
from their cousins, till the day before the wedding. Sydney was proud
to help Margaret in training the chrysanthemums, putting the garden into
winter trim, and in planting round the walls of the surgery with large
evergreens. Mr Grey came down almost every evening to suggest and
approve; and Morris left her needle (now busy from morning till night in
Hester's service) to admire, and to speak her wishes, when desired,
about the preparations in her department. Morris, another maid, and a
foot-boy, were the only servants; and Morris was to have everything as
she liked best for her own region. But Margaret was as eager and
interested as all the rest together. Her heart was light for her
sister; and for the first time since she was capable of thought, she
believed that Hester was g