g
an earlier train than I had hoped for, and here I am two hours before I
was expected. How is Hilda? Have you been at the house? Are they all
fearfully cut up?"

"How do you do, Mr. Quentyns?" replied Mildred. "Yes, I have been at the
house, and I have seen Judy and Aunt Marjorie. Judy seems to me to be in
a very excitable and feverish state of mind."

"She's rather spoilt, isn't she?" said Quentyns.

"Oh, well, she's Hilda's special darling, the first in her heart by
many degrees--after--after somebody else."

"But how could a child like Judy know anything about money loss?"

"It isn't the money that's troubling her at the present moment, it's a
poor wasp. Now pray don't look so bewildered, and do try and forget
about Judy. Aunt Marjorie is taking her trouble in a thoroughly
practical and Aunt Marjorie style. I have not seen Hilda, nor have I
seen the Rector."

"It will be an awful blow to them all," said Quentyns.

"Yes," replied Miss Anstruther, looking him straight in the eyes, "an
awful blow. And you feel it far more than Hilda," she soliloquized, as
she walked back to her own home.

CHAPTER VI.

THE EVE OF THE WEDDING.

Where shall I find a white rose blowing?
Out in the garden where all sweets be.
But out in my garden the snow was snowing
And never a white rose opened for me,
Naught but snow and a wind were blowing
And snowing.

--CHRISTINA G. ROSSETTI.

Notwithstanding Mildred Anstruther's inward prognostications, there came
no hitch to Hilda Merton's engagement. Quentyns behaved as the best and
most honorable of men. He was all that was tender and loving to Hilda,
and he immediately took that position toward Mr. Merton which a son
might have held. Quentyns was a good business man, and in the
catastrophe which overwhelmed the Rectory, he proved himself invaluable.

On one point, however, he was very firm. His marriage with Hilda must
not be delayed. No persuasive speeches on her part, no longing looks out
of Judy's hungry eyes, no murmurs on the part of Aunt Marjorie, would
induce him to put off the time of the wedding by a single day.

He used great tact in this matter, for Quentyns was the soul of tact,
and it quite seemed to the family, and even to Hilda herself, that _she_
had suggested the eighth of January as the most suitable day in the
whole year for a wedding--it seemed to the whole family, and even to
Hilda herself, that _sh