the
changes in fashions, changes in the manufacture of Court luxuries
became necessary. Reuben would advance with the times, his father
would remain where he was before. It was a plan which had been
carefully considered by both father and son for long, and would
have been earlier carried out had it not been for the disastrous
stoppage of all trade during the visitation of the plague.

Now, however, London seemed as gay as ever. Orders were pouring in.
It was wonderful how little the gaps in the ranks seemed to be
heeded. It was scarcely, even amongst the upper classes, that
persons troubled to wear the deep mourning for departed friends
which, under ordinary circumstances, they would have done. The
great wish of all appeared to be to forget the awful visitation as
fast as possible, and to drown the memory of it in feasting and
revelry. And this spirit, however little to the liking of a godly
man like James Harmer, was nevertheless good for his trade.

Lady Scrope being in the secret of the surprise in store for the
Master Builder, was anxious to amuse herself by being witness to
his enlightenment; and it certainly seemed as though she had full
right thus to amuse herself, if it were her desire. Reuben had some
savings of his own; but the purchase of the house, had it been made
by him alone, would have seriously crippled his ability to carry
out his further plans of business. Thus it was really Lady Scrope's
golden guineas which had paved the way for the young people, and no
one could grudge her the enjoyment of seeing them arrive at their
new home.

The Master Builder had had some dealings of late with her ladyship;
for on hearing what he was employed to do for so many of her friends,
she summoned him to fumigate both of her houses when she had got rid
of all her temporary inmates; and she followed him about, watching
what he did, and amusing herself with making him relate all the
gossip he had picked up relative to her acquaintances into whose
houses he had been admitted: how many amongst them had had the
plague, how many had died, and all the other details that her
insatiable curiosity could glean from him.

And now the bridal couple, together with the bride's father, were
being driven in state through the widest thoroughfares of the city
in the hired chariot of Lady Scrope, she chatting all the while,
and pointing out this thing and that as they went, openly lamenting
that so little remained to remind them of