as too much absorbed in other things to understand the
mysterious words of the Priest, but notwithstanding this the seed
had been again sown that would sometime spring up unannounced and
unexpected.

The announcement of the wedding was soon made and invitations sent
out, far and near. Congratulations poured in from every source,
although some would have refused, had they been true to their own
sentiments, for the remarkable and unaccountable change which had
taken place during her terrible malady was too evident to be
altogether right and should be righted before the Prince should make
the Princess his wife.

Rathunor was satisfied, never forgetting the Hierophant's sacred
words, and none other need be consulted. In their silent hearts they
wished the wedding might be private and the holy ceremony of the
Temple be performed by the High Priest. This, of course, could not
be owing to the station and position they occupied in life, for the
lives of a Princess and Prince are not wholly their own, so to the
public they must bow and pay obeisance.

Preparations for the wedding commenced at once, for it was to be a
grand affair. Nothing was to be spared that would add beauty and
grandeur to the occasion. Extravagant expenditures were indulged in,
until money seemed at a loss to supply more. The trousseau was
exquisitely magnificent and, on the wedding night, the beaming
radiance of the countenance of the Princess was neither dimmed by
the rich silks, nor the rare, priceless laces and lovely jewels that
glittered and sparkled with the living spark of life within them,
that adorned her form.

Never a bride so fair; never a couple so happy. It was that quiet,
subtle happiness, which permeates the very atmosphere about them and
leaves its traces in every susceptible heart that breathes it.

CHAPTER XI.

THE RETIREMENT.

After the wedding the Prince and Princess were, from necessity,
drawn within the whirl of social pleasures with attentions in the
way of entertainments, court suppers, balls, drawing-room
receptions, etc. The interior longings were compelled to creep into
the background until the external was gratified to exhaustion. The
Princess' seriousness departed for a time and they were very happy
in the round of pleasures that were planned for them. But as time
sped on they began to grow weary of the show, pomp and shallowness
of external life. The seeds that had been sown in Rathunor's heart
and brain, an