"I've been dressing my feathers, my dear," replied Mrs. Layton, "my half-yearly dressing, you know, and I don't believe, Rachel, that your cook or your scullery-maid have sent me half what they should." Mrs. Temple slightly shrugged her handsome shoulders. "We've had a wedding in the family," she said, scornfully, "and I've come to tell you the news." "A wedding!" repeated Mrs. Layton, blankly. "Yes, my nephew John Temple has entered the distinguished family of Churchill," continued Mrs. Temple, yet more scornfully. "Nice for us all, isn't it?" "It can't be true?" gasped Mrs. Layton. "Perfectly true, I assure you! The respected head of the family has just been to the Hall to tell Phillip, and he brought a copy of the register of the marriage, and everything is all correct. My beloved nephew, it seems, was secretly married when he went away in the autumn, he said, to Paris. No doubt he did go to Paris, but it was with his highly-born bride!" "Well, whatever is the world coming to!" cried Mrs. Layton with uplifted hands. "It will be destroyed--no doubt the end is coming--such monstrous things occur! To think that this girl, a girl I've bought eggs of, a girl whose character I consider to be far from what it ought to be, should make such a match! But I warned you, Rachel, against John Temple; a snake in the grass, I considered him; but I never thought he would be such a fool as this." "I think he must be more a fool than a snake," answered Mrs. Temple, contemptuously. "Fancy marrying a girl like this! And Phillip says we must make the best of it, which I suppose means inviting the bride and bridegroom to stay at the Hall! However, we shall see. But, good-morning now, mother; I'll leave you to digest my news." And with a little nod Mrs. Temple turned away and left the house, while Mrs. Layton stood absolutely speechless with disgust. But both Mr. Churchill's elation and Mrs. Temple's indignation cooled down during the next few weeks. For, to the great surprise and disappointment of Mr. Churchill, nothing was heard at Woodside either from John Temple or his supposed bride. Each morning Mr. Churchill said he could not understand it when the letters came in and there was none from May; and Mrs. Churchill--though with caution--began again to insinuate that she feared it was not all right. And the squire himself, just a week after Mr. Churchill's visit to the Hall to announce the marriage, walked one morning over to Woodside, to ask Mr. Churchill the whereabouts of the bride and bridegroom. "Well, squire, it's the strangest thing, but we have not had a word from them," answered Mr. Churchill, somewhat disconcerted. "It is certainly very strange," said the squire, slowly. "Can't understand it, because I told the ladies--the Miss Websters that she had been staying with, and who saw her married to Mr. John Temple--that you had been kind enough to say you would receive her as his wife."