er's son,' said Aubrey, in his low lazy voice.

'Well,' said Mary, 'even to the last, I do believe he had as soon drive
papa out as walk with Blanche. Flora was quite scandalized at it.'

'I should not imagine that George had often driven my father out,' said
Aubrey, again looking lazily up from balancing his spoon.

Ethel laughed; and even Richard smiled; then recovering herself, she
said, 'Poor Hector, he never could call himself son to any one before.'

'He has not been much otherwise here,' said Richard.

'No,' said Ethel; 'it is the peculiar hardship of our weddings to break
us up by pairs, and carry off two instead of one. Did you ever see me
with so shabby a row of tea-cups? When shall I have them come in
riding double again?'

The recent wedding was the third in the family; the first after a five
years' respite. It ensued upon an attachment that had grown up with
the young people, so that they had been entirely one with each other;
and there had been little of formal demand either of the maiden's
affection or her father's consent; but both had been implied from the
first. The bridegroom was barely of age, the bride not seventeen, and
Dr. May had owned it was very shocking, and told Richard to say nothing
about it! Hector had coaxed and pleaded, pathetically talked of his
great empty house at Maplewood, and declared that till he might take
Blanche away, he would not leave Stoneborough; he would bring down all
sorts of gossip on his courtship, he would worry Ethel, and take care
she finished nobody's education. What did Blanche want with more
education? She knew enough for him. Couldn't Ethel be satisfied with
Aubrey and Gertrude? or he dared say she might have Mary too, if she
was insatiable. If Dr. May was so unnatural as to forbid him to hang
about the house, why, he would take rooms at the Swan. In fact, as Dr.
May observed, he treated him to a modern red-haired Scotch version of
'Make me a willow cabin at your gate;' and as he heartily loved Hector
and entirely trusted him, and Blanche's pretty head was a wise and
prudent one, what was the use of keeping the poor lad unsettled?

So Mrs. Rivers, the eldest sister and the member's wife, had come to
arrange matters and help Ethel, and a very brilliant wedding it had
been. Blanche was too entirely at home with Hector for flutterings or
agitations, and was too peacefully happy for grief at the separation,
which completed the destiny that she had