n showing you
what the people call the state rooms. We never use them. Of course you
know the house belongs to my brother, and we only live here because it
suits him to stay in Italy."

"That's the young Marquis, my lady?"

"Yes; my elder brother is Marquis of Brotherton, but I cannot say that
he is very young. He is two years my senior, and ten years older than
George."

"But I think he's not married yet?" asked Miss Tallowax.

The question was felt to be disagreeable by them all. Poor Mary could
not keep herself from blushing, as she remembered how much to her might
depend on this question of her brother-in-law's marriage. Lord George
felt that the old lady was enquiring what chance there might be that
her grand niece should ever become a marchioness. Old Lady Brotherton,
who had always been anxious that her elder son should marry, felt
uncomfortable, as did also the Dean, conscious that all there must be
conscious how important must be the matter to him.

"No," said Lady Sarah, with stately gravity; "my elder brother is not
yet married. If you would like to see the rooms, Miss Tallowax, I shall
have pleasure in showing you the way."

The Dean had seen the rooms before, and remained with the old lady.
Lord George, who thought very much of everything affecting his own
family, joined the party, and Mary felt herself compelled to follow her
husband and her aunt. The two younger sisters also accompanied Lady
Sarah.

"This is the room in which Queen Elizabeth slept," said Lady Sarah,
entering a large chamber on the ground floor, in which there was a
four-post bedstead, almost as high as the ceiling, and looking as
though no human body had profaned it for the last three centuries.

"Dear me," said Miss Tallowax, almost afraid to press such sacred
boards with her feet. "Queen Elizabeth! Did she really now?"

"Some people say she never did actually come to Manor Cross at all,"
said the conscientious Lady Amelia; "but there is no doubt that the
room was prepared for her."

"Laws!" said Miss Tallowax, who began to be less afraid of distant
royalty now that a doubt was cast on its absolute presence.

"Examining the evidence as closely as we can," said Lady Sarah, with a
savage glance at her sister, "I am inclined to think that she certainly
did come. We know that she was at Brotherton in 1582, and there exists
the letter in which Sir Humphrey Germaine, as he was then, is desired
to prepare rooms for her. I myself h