eep the matter as close as
possible. That was all, and it did not take away her appetite.

But the anxious young husband could not eat. A feverish and burning
thirst, such as frequently attends excessive grief or anxiety, consumed
him. He drank cup after cup of tea almost unconsciously, until at length
Lady Belgrade said:

"This makes four! I am your hostess, duke; but I am also your aunt by
marriage, and upon my word I cannot let you go on ruining your health in
this way! You shall not have another cup of tea, unless you consent to
eat something with it."

The young duke smiled wanly, and submitted so far as to take a piece of
dry toast on his plate and crumble it into bits.

Meanwhile, the dowager, having finished her breakfast, took up the
_Times_ to look over.

Presently she startled the duke by exclaiming:

"Thank Heaven!"

"What is it?" hastily inquired the duke, setting down his cup and gazing
at the silent reader. "Any news of Salome?" he added, and then nearly
lost his breath while waiting for the answer.

"Oh, yes, news of Salome! But scarcely authentic news. Listen! Here
is a full account of the wedding--with a description of the bride
and bridesmaids, and their dresses and attendants, and of the ceremony
and the officiating clergy, and the attending crowd, and the
wedding-breakfast, speeches, presents, and so on, all tolerably
correct for a newspaper report. But now listen to this--"

Her ladyship here read aloud:

"Immediately after the wedding-breakfast, the happy pair left town, by
the London and South Coast Railway, _en route_ for Dover, Paris and
the Continent."

"There! what do you think of that?" inquired Lady Belgrade, looking up.

"I think it is not the first occasion upon which a paper has anticipated
and described an expected event that some unforeseen accident prevented
from coming off," answered the duke, with a sigh.

"I thank fortune for this! Now you have really started on your wedding
tour in the belief of all London, and all outside of London who take the
_Times_; and all _our_ world _do_ take it. And now, if any
rumor of this most inopportune disappearance of our bride _should_
get out, why, it will never be believed! That is all! For has not the
departure of the 'happy pair' been published in the _Times_? Yes,
I am very glad of the news reporter's indiscreet precipitancy on this
occasion, at least," concluded Lady Belgrade, as she turned to other
"fashionable intelligence