ispers that trouble may not last: that sickness may be superseded by
health; that this dark wintry world will be followed by heaven.

Such a day was smiling over Deerham. And they were only in the first
days of February. The sun was warm, the fields were green, the sky was
blue; all Nature seemed to have put on her brightness. As Mrs. Duff
stood at her door and exchanged greetings with sundry gossips passing
by--an unusual number of whom were abroad--she gave it as her opinion
that the charming weather had been vouchsafed as a special favour to
Miss Decima Verner; for it was the wedding-day of that young lady and
Sir Edmund Hautley.

Sir Edmund would fain have been married immediately after his return.
Perhaps Decima would also. But Lady Verner, always given to study the
proprieties of life, considered that it would be more seemly to allow
first a few months to roll on after the death of her son's wife. So the
autumn and part of the winter were allowed to go by; and in this, the
first week of February, they were united; being favoured with weather
that might have cheated them into a belief that it was May-day.

How anxious Deerham was to get a sight of her, as the carriages
conveying the party to church drove to and fro! Lionel gave her away,
and her bride's-maids were Lady Mary Elmsley and Lucy Tempest. The story
of the long engagement between her and Edmund Hautley had electrified
Deerham; and some began to wish that they had not called her an old maid
quite so prematurely. Should it unfortunately have reached her ears, it
might tend to place them in the black books of the future Lady Hautley.
Lady Verner was rather against Jan's going to church. Lady Verner's
private opinion was--indeed it may be said her proclaimed opinion as
well as her private one--that Jan would be no ornament to a wedding
party. But Decima had already got Jan's promise to be present, which Jan
had given conditionally--that no patients required him at the time. But
Jan's patients proved themselves considerate that day; and Jan appeared
not only at the church, but at the breakfast.

At the dinner, also, in the evening. Sir Edmund and Lady Hautley had
left then; but those who remained of course wanted some dinner; and had
it. It was a small party, more social than formal: Mr. and Mrs.
Bitterworth, Lord Garle and his sister, Miss Hautley and John
Massingbird. Miss Hautley was again staying temporarily at Deerham Hall,
but she would leave it on th