aris fashion?' said Dolly.

'And what shall he bring Lucy?' added Bess.

'I know,' said Annora; 'the pearls that mother is always talking about!
I heard her say that Lucy should wear them on her wedding-day.'

'Hush!' interposed Lucy, 'don't you see my father yonder on the step,
beckoning to you?'

The children flew towards Sir Marmaduke, leaving Berenger and Lucy
together.

'Not a word to wish me good speed, Lucy, now I have my wish?' said
Berenger.

'Oh, yes,' said Lucy, 'I am glad you should see all those brave French
gentlemen of whom you used to tell me.'

'Yes, they will be all at court, and the good Admiral is said to be in
high favour. He will surely remember my father.'

'And shall you see the lady?' asked Lucy, under her breath.

'Eustacie? Probably; but that will make no change. I have heard too much
of _l'escadron de la Reine-mere_ to endure the thought of a wife from
thence, were she the Queen of Beauty herself. And my mother says that
Eustacie would lose all her beauty as she grew up--like black-eyed Sue
on the down; nor did I ever think her brown skin and fierce black eyes
to compare with you, Lucy. I could be well content never to see her
more; but,' and here he lowered his voice to a tone of confidence, 'my
father, when near his death, called me, and told me that he feared my
marriage would be a cause of trouble and temptation to me, and that I
must deal with it after my conscience when I was able to judge in
the matter. Something, too, he said of the treaty of marriage being
a burthen on his soul, but I know not what he meant. If ever I saw
Eustacie again, I was to give her his own copy of Clement Marot's
Psalter, and to tell her that he had ever loved and prayed for her as a
daughter; and moreover, my father added,' said Berenger, much moved at
the remembrance it brought across him, 'that if this matter proved a
burthen and perplexity to me, I was to pardon him as one who repented of
it as a thing done ere he had learnt to weigh the whole world against a
soul.'

'Yes, you must see her,' said Lucy.

'Well, what more were you going to say, Lucy?'

'I was only thinking,' said Lucy, as she raised her eyes to him, 'how
sorry she will be that she let them write that letter.'

Berenger laughed, pleased with the simplicity of Lucy's admiration, but
with modesty and common sense enough to answer, 'No fear of that, Lucy,
for an heiress, with all the court gallants of France at her feet.'

'Ah,