e's house a month longer
than he intended. His father and mother naturally expect to see him at
home again.'

Miss Haldane met this difficulty with a suggestion, which could only
have proceeded from a judgment already disturbed by the ravages of the
tender passion. 'Why can't his father and mother go and see him at
Lord Montbarry's?' she asked. 'Sir Theodore's place is only thirty
miles away, and Lady Barville is Lord Montbarry's sister. They needn't
stand on ceremony.'

'They may have other engagements,' Mrs. Carbury remarked.

'My dear aunt, we don't know that! Suppose you ask Arthur?'

'Suppose you ask him?'

Miss Haldane bent her head again over her work. Suddenly as it was
done, her aunt had seen her face--and her face betrayed her.

When Arthur came the next day, Mrs. Carbury said a word to him in
private, while her niece was in the garden. The last new novel lay
neglected on the table. Arthur followed Miss Haldane into the garden.
The next day he wrote home, enclosing in his letter a photograph of
Miss Haldane. Before the end of the week, Sir Theodore and Lady
Barville arrived at Lord Montbarry's, and formed their own judgment of
the fidelity of the portrait. They had themselves married early in
life--and, strange to say, they did not object on principle to the
early marriages of other people. The question of age being thus
disposed of, the course of true love had no other obstacles to
encounter. Miss Haldane was an only child, and was possessed of an
ample fortune. Arthur's career at the university had been creditable,
but certainly not brilliant enough to present his withdrawal in the
light of a disaster. As Sir Theodore's eldest son, his position was
already made for him. He was two-and-twenty years of age; and the
young lady was eighteen. There was really no producible reason for
keeping the lovers waiting, and no excuse for deferring the wedding-day
beyond the first week in September. In the interval, while the bride
and bridegroom would be necessarily absent on the inevitable tour
abroad, a sister of Mrs. Carbury volunteered to stay with her during
the temporary separation from her niece. On the conclusion of the
honeymoon, the young couple were to return to Ireland, and were to
establish themselves in Mrs. Carbury's spacious and comfortable house.

These arrangements were decided upon early in the month of August.
About the same date, the last alterations in the old palace at Venice
were completed