he looked to be neither fluttered nor ill
at ease. We know how a brave man will sit and have his tooth taken
out, without a sign of pain on his brow,--trusting to the relief
which is to come to him. So it was with Lord Llwddythlw. It might,
perhaps, have saved pain if, as Lady Amaldina had said, chloroform
could have been used.

"Well, my dear, it is done at last," Lady Persiflage said to her
daughter, when the bride was taken into some chamber for the
readjustment of her dress.

"Yes, mamma, it is done now."

"And are you happy?"

"Certainly I am. I have got what I wanted."

"And you can love him?" Coming from Lady Persiflage this did seem to
be romantic; but she had been stirred up to some serious thoughts as
she remembered that she was now surrendering to a husband the girl
whom she had made, whom she had tutored, whom she had prepared either
for the good or for the evil performance of the duties of life.

"Oh, yes, mamma," said Lady Amaldina. It is so often the case that
the pupils are able to exceed the teaching of their tutors! It was so
in this case. The mother, as she saw her girl given up to a silent
middle-aged unattractive man, had her misgivings; but not so the
daughter herself. She had looked at it all round, and had resolved
that she could do her duty--under certain stipulations which she
thought would be accorded to her. "He has more to say for himself
than you think;--only he won't trouble himself to make assertions.
And if he is not very much in love, he likes me better than anybody
else, which goes a long way." Her mother blessed her, and led her
away into a room where she joined her husband in order that she might
be then taken down to the carriage.

The bride herself had not quite understood what was to take place,
and was surprised to find herself quite alone for a moment with her
husband. "My wife," he said; "now kiss me."

She ran into his arms and put up her face to him. "I thought you were
going to forget that," she said, as he held her for a moment with his
arm round her waist.

"I could not dare," he said, "to handle all that gorgeous drapery of
lace. You were dressed up then for an exhibition. You look now as my
wife ought to look."

"It had to be done, Llwddythlw."

"I make no complaint, dearest. I only say that I like you better
as you are, as a girl to kiss, and to embrace, and to talk to, and
to make my own." Then she curtsied to him prettily, and kissed
him again; and af