ed at receiving a voluminous letter from
Aunt Philippa a few days afterwards, informing me of Sara's engagement to
Colonel Ferguson.

'Your uncle and I are delighted with the match,' she wrote. 'Colonel
Ferguson belongs to a very good old family, and he has private property.
Your uncle says that he is a very intelligent man, and is much respected
in the regiment.

'Mrs. Fullerton thinks it is a pity for Sara to marry a widower; but I
call that nonsense; he is a young-looking man for his age, and every one
thinks him so handsome. Sara, poor darling, is as happy as possible. I
believe that they are to be married soon after Easter, as he wants to get
some salmon fishing in Norway: so we shall come up to Hyde Park Gate
early next week, and see about the trousseau, for there is no time to be
lost.'

Sara added a few words in her pretty girlish handwriting.

'I wonder if you will be very much surprised by mamma's letter, Ursula
dear. We all thought he liked Lesbia, but no, he says that was entirely a
mistake on our part, he never really thought of her at all.

'Of course I am very happy. I think there is no one like Donald in the
world. I cannot imagine why such a wise, clever man should fall in love
with a silly little body like me. I suppose I must please him in some
way, for, really, he seems dreadfully in love.

'You must come to my wedding, Ursula, and I must choose your dress
for you; of course father will pay for it, but I promise you it shall
be pretty, and suitable to your complexion. I mean to have eight
bridesmaids. Jocelyn will be one, of course, and I shall get that tall,
fair Grace Underley to act as a foil to her bigness. I shall not ask
poor Lesbia to be one; it would be too trying for her, and I know you
will not care about it; but you must come for a week, and see all my
pretty things, and help poor mamma, for she has only Jocelyn: so remember
you are to keep yourself disengaged the week after Easter.'

I wrote back that same evening warm congratulations to Sara and Aunt
Philippa, and promised to come when Sara wanted me. A gay wedding was not
to my taste, but I knew I owed this duty to them: they had been kind to
me in their own fashion and according to their lights, and I would not
fail them. Easter would fall late this year,--in the middle of April:
there were still three months before Sara would be married, and most
likely by that time I should need a few days' rest and change.

The next morning