your letters, I was able to follow your
course and understand all about it. You are looking better than
when I saw you last."

"You should have seen him when I first met him, mamma. I hardly
knew him, he looked so thin and worn; but during the last three
weeks he has filled out again, and he seems to me to be looking
quite himself."

"And Bertha is looking well, too."

"So I ought to do, mamma. I don't think I ever looked very bad, in
spite of my troubles, and the splendid voyage we have had would
have set anyone up."

"It has been a wonderful comfort to me," Lady Greendale said, "that
I have met hardly anyone that I know. The last three weeks or so I
have met two or three people, but I only said that I was up in town
for a short time. Of course, they asked after you, and I said that
you were not with me, as you were spending a short time with some
people whom you knew. We intend to go down home tomorrow."

"The best thing that you can do, Lady Greendale. I shall be down
for Christmas, and the first week in April, you know, I am to carry
her off. So, you see, this excursion of ours has not altered any of
our plans."

Chapter 20.

Christmas passed off quietly. As soon as it was known that Lady
Greendale had returned, the neighbours called, and for the next few
months there was the usual round of dinner parties. To all remarks
as to the length of time that she had been away, Lady Greendale
merely replied that Bertha had been staying among friends, and that
as she herself had not been in very good health, she had preferred
staying in town, where she could always find a physician close at
hand if she needed one.

It was not until they had been back for more than a month, that the
engagement between Bertha and Major Mallett was announced by Lady
Greendale to her friends, and it was generally supposed that it had
but just taken place. The announcement gave great satisfaction, for
the general opinion had been that Bertha would get engaged in
London, and that Greendale would be virtually lost to the county.

The marriage was to take place in April.

"There is no reason for a long delay," Lady Greendale explained.
"They have known each other ever since Bertha was a child. They
intend to spend their honeymoon on board Major Mallett's yacht, the
Osprey, and will go up the Mediterranean until the heat begins to
get too oppressive, when they talk about sailing round the islands,
or, at any rate, cruising for some