when I come," laughed the countess. "One would
fancy there was some reason for it."

"It does seem odd," agreed Clementina, with a slight flush.

Miss Hodskiss herself showed rather than spoke her appreciation of the
girl. She seemed unable to move or think without her. Not even from the
interviews with Lord C--- was the maid always absent.

The marriage, it was settled, should be by licence. Mrs. Hodskiss made
up her mind at first to run down and see to the preliminaries, but really
when the time arrived it hardly seemed necessary to take that trouble.
The ordering of the whole affair was so very simple, and the "treasure"
appeared to understand the business most thoroughly, and to be willing to
take the whole burden upon her own shoulders. It was not, therefore,
until the evening before the wedding that the Hodskiss family arrived in
force, filling Aunt Jane's small dwelling to its utmost capacity. The
swelling figure of the contractor, standing beside the tiny porch,
compelled the passer-by to think of the doll's house in which the dwarf
resides during fair-time, ringing his own bell out of his own first-floor
window. The countess and Lord C--- were staying with her ladyship's
sister, the Hon. Mrs. J---, at G--- Hall, some ten miles distant, and
were to drive over in the morning. The then Earl of --- was in Norway,
salmon fishing. Domestic events did not interest him.

Clementina complained of a headache after dinner, and went to bed early.
The "treasure" also was indisposed. She seemed worried and excited.

"That girl is as eager about the thing," remarked Mrs. Hodskiss, "as
though it was her own marriage."

In the morning Clementina was still suffering from her headache, but
asserted her ability to go through the ceremony, provided everybody would
keep away, and not worry her. The "treasure" was the only person she
felt she could bear to have about her. Half an hour before it was time
to start for church her mother looked her up again. She had grown still
paler, if possible, during the interval, and also more nervous and
irritable. She threatened to go to bed and stop there if she was not
left quite alone. She almost turned her mother out of the room, locking
the door behind her. Mrs. Hodskiss had never known her daughter to be
like this before.

The others went on, leaving her to follow in the last carriage with her
father. The contractor, forewarned, spoke little to her. Only once he
had