y. True will have to teach the
fine ladies to make daisy-chains and drink tea out of thimbles. There
is a lot that grown-ups have learnt and forgotten, and a lot they have
never learnt at all. And of course Nobbles will give them a rap over
the knuckles for every mistake they make.'

Bobby laughed delightedly.

'Go on! Tell us more!'

'I can't. My brain is so frightened at all it has to do to-morrow that
it has stopped working. I want to give it a rest to-day, poor thing.
It is never very bright. You ask Lady Isobel what she feels like.'

'What do you feel like?' asked Bobby promptly, turning to her.

'Very much inclined to shut myself in my room and not come to church at
all to-morrow,' she replied with sparkling eyes and flushed cheeks.

Mr. Egerton shook his head at her.

'If you play me false,' he said, 'Bobby will have to fill his bath full
of water, and I will come and drown myself in it!'

'Do!' cried True; 'and then we will take you out and hang you up to
dry!'

'We won't be too silly,' said Lady Isobel.

'And a wedding is a very solemn thing, isn't it?' said Bobby. 'Mrs.
Dodd telled Margot that she cried more at weddings than funerals.'

'I shan't cry,' said True, 'because I would spoil my white frock.'

She was delighted with her white costume, which Lady Isobel had
insisted upon providing. Margot at first shook her head over it.

''Tis too soon after the dear mistress's death to put off her black,'
she said; but True had retorted instantly:

'Mother wouldn't mind, I know. She's in a white dress herself now; she
doesn't wear black, so why should I?' And Margot was silenced.

Bobby was to wear his best white sailor suit. He had coaxed Margot to
buy him a white piece of ribbon with which Nobbles was to be decorated,
and he and True spent quite half an hour in arranging it in the form of
a rosette.

Mr. Allonby was the only one in the house who did not seem impressed by
the excitement and stir about the important event. His face was a
shade graver than usual when Bobby went to wish him good-night.

'I am going to cut and run to-morrow, sonny. Your uncle understands.
I can't be with you. I shall be out of town.'

Bobby's face fell tremendously.

'Oh, father, I did think you'd come with us. Shall True and I have to
walk up the church all alone?'

'There won't be many people there, my boy. And they will send a
carriage for you. You won't miss me. Don't look so doleful.'