inly make her duty to him the first motive
of all her actions."

"What a grand lesson! It is a pity that my husband should not be here
to hear it."

"I have no doubt he finds that you do so."

"Or Sir Francis Geraldine. I suppose my uncle is still in search of a
wife, and if he knew where to find such excellent principles he would
be able to make his choice. What a joke it would be should he again
try his luck at Exeter?"

"He has again tried his luck at Exeter," said Miss Altifiorla, in
a tone in which some slight shade of ridicule was mixed with the
grandiloquence which she wished to assume.

"What on earth do you mean?" said Mrs. Thorne.

"Simply what I seem to mean. I had not intended to have told you at
present, though I would sooner tell you than any person living. You
must promise me, however, that it shall go no further. Sir Francis
Geraldine has done me the honour to ask me to be his wife." Thus she
communicated her good news; and did so in a tone of voice that was
very low, and intended to be humble.

"My uncle going to marry you? Good gracious!"

"Is it more wonderful than that he should have thought of marrying
Cecilia Holt?"

"Well, yes. Not that I know why it should be, except that Cecilia
came first, and that you and she were so intimate."

"Was he doomed to remain alone in the world because of that?" asked
Miss Altifiorla.

"Well, no; I don't exactly mean that. But it is droll."

"I hope that the Dean and Mrs. Hippesley will be satisfied with his
choice. I do particularly hope that all his friends will feel that he
is doing well. But," she added, perceiving that her tidings had not
been received with any strong expression of family satisfaction--"but
I trust that, as Lady Geraldine, I may at any rate be the means of
keeping the family together."

There was to Mrs. Thorne almost a joke in this, as she knew that her
father did not at all approve of Sir Francis, and was with difficulty
induced to have him at the Deanery. And she knew also that the Dean
did in his heart greatly dislike Miss Altifiorla, though for the sake
of what was generally called "peace within the cathedral precincts,"
he had hitherto put up also with her. What might happen in the Dean's
mind, or what determination the Dean might take when the two should
be married, she could not say. But she felt that it might probably
be beyond the power of the then Lady Geraldine "to keep the family
together." "Well, I am surprised,"