"Oh, no doubt there are sundry who would accept one with pleasure. But you know, I'm a relationless being, Hester. Now that Aunt Flo is gone, there isn't a soul belonging to me. It's better than having undesirable relatives, isn't it? What a horror that would be, to be sure! But I'm glad you've thought of the Rectory people. I owe them heaps, Hester, for having allowed me to carry off the only daughter of the house--and such a daughter! And you're having a good time, are you not, dearest? Young Stapleton was just remarking the other day at the Club that you were the prettiest and most popular bride of the season. I'm so glad you're such a glorious success," he added, taking her hand caressingly, and raising it to his lips. "I'm going to write to your mother one day soon, and tell her how well her transplanted English rose is doing here!" "Don't boast about me in that strain, Alfred! It would not be convincing to mother, though I know she'd love to have a letter from you. But that nonsense of young Stapleton's, for instance, she would positively dislike," returned Hester with decision, for she was eager to prevent this husband of hers, whom her father half in fun maintained to be still "an unknown quantity," from betraying any trace of the curious little selfish vanity concerning his own possessions, simply because they were his, which he was apt to show at times. Loving him as she did in spite of his faults, she desired like a true wife to screen them from all eyes, especially from the sensitive, high-souled, innermost circle of her home. "All right, Hester, I'll submit the letter for your approval. You can expunge all that you think would not go down in that quarter," said her husband lightly. Hester, in the fullness of her heart, thought now to enliven their talk by giving her husband some passages from the happy hours spent at Ennore, and began to expatiate on the delight of the girls on its varied attractions, and how all the arrangements were carried out without a single hitch, Waller having sent roomy carriages and good horses, and as he promised, "done the Misses proud!"