Mrs. Campbell shared her daughter's triumphant satisfaction. To all her kinfolk, married and unmarried, male and female, she wrote little notes brimming with pride and false humility, and expatiating on Sir Thomas Wynton's rank, wealth and power, his handsome person, and his deep devotion to her daughter; piously trusting that "her dear child might not be lured from the narrow path of godliness, in which she had been so carefully trained." So in these days Christina was busy and happy, and mistress of all she desired. Yet as the wedding-day approached, she became nervous and irritable; she said she was weary to death, and wanted to sleep for a month. No one cared to cross her in the smallest matter, though her family devotion never deserted her. This feeling was strongly exemplified about two weeks before the wedding-day, in a few words said to her brother one evening when they were alone in the dining-room. "Robert," she asked, "how near are you to the hundred thousand you expected? You have paid me the five hundred pounds promised. I should like to know if I have earned it. How near are you to your desire?" "Near enough." "Has he signed the papers yet?" "No." "Why?" "I have not pressed the matter." "You are foolish. It will be easier to get his signature before we are married, than after." "You suspicious woman! Men keep their word about money matters, Christina. Don't you know that?" "No." "Well, of course you don't. You know nothing about men." "You are satisfied, are you?" "I am perfectly satisfied." "And sure?" "And positively sure." A week later she asked again, though in a joking manner, "if he had secured that signature?" and Robert answered in a tone of annoyance: "Do not trouble yourself anent my money matters, Christina." Then she laughed and said: "When I am Lady Wynton, I may find many other ways for the spending of that hundred thousand of lying siller." "I can trust you," replied Robert. "When you are Lady Wynton, you will not cease to be Christina Campbell, and Campbells stand shoulder to shoulder all the world over." At these words she gave him her hand, and he clasped it tightly between his own. No further words were necessary. Robert knew assuredly that his sister's influence would always be in his favor, never against him. As she left her brother, Mrs. Campbell called her, and with a slight reluctance she went into the familiar room. "What is it you want with me, mother?" she asked, quickly adding, "I am very busy to-day." "I want to tell you, Christina, that I have had the small room behind this room prepared for your trunks. They ought to have been here yesterday. Are your dresses not finished? It is high time they were." "Some are finished, others are not." "Those that are finished had better be sent here at once."