"Margaret! Why?" asked Lucy, in a tone which fully expressed all the surprise she had been requested not to feel. "I will tell you, Lucy. In a short time I am likely to have another baby. You did not know that, at least you did not know it was to be so soon; and I am very, very anxious--so anxious, that if I cannot have my own way in this it will be very bad for me--that your marriage should be over before a time comes when I may be very ill--you know I was very ill indeed after Gerty's birth." "I know," said Lucy, still with the surprised look. "And I feel sure, dear Lucy, that if you are not married until the summer I shall not be here." "Not be here, Margaret! You surely do not mean--" "I mean nothing to frighten you, Lucy, but I do mean this. I have not been well lately, and I have been sent away as you know; I ought not to be here now, the doctors would say--but it cannot be helped; we were obliged to come to England, and I may be sent away again, and not be able to go to your wedding. In short, Lucy," and here Mrs. Baldwin lost her composure, "I have set my heart on this. Will you make the sacrifice for me? will you put up with a much quieter wedding, and go and spend your honeymoon at our villa at Naples?" "I don't know what to think," said Lucy; "I would do anything you liked, but it does not quite depend upon me; there's papa and mamma, and Haldane, you know." "I fancy Haldane will not object to your marriage being hurried a little," said Margaret, with a smile; "and I have generally understood that Miss Lucy Crofton contrives to get her own way with papa and mamma." Margaret was very unlikely to remember her own importance out of season; but it was not unseasonable that she should think of it now, and feel comforted by the assurance that Mr. and Mrs. Crofton would probably yield to any very strongly urged wish of hers. Lucy laughed a little--the imputation of power over anybody was not unpleasing to this young lady, who, after a fashion which had not hitherto developed into unamiability, dearly loved her own way. "But Lady Davyntry is at Naples," she said in a tone which was very reassuring to Margaret, who felt that the chief question was virtually disposed of, and details only now remained to be mastered. "She is; but I am going to ask her to come home, since I find I cannot return. We must go to the Deane soon, if you will only be good, and let things be arranged as I wish. I need not go until after your wedding; but my husband and I wish that the child should be born at the Deane. "Of course," assented Lucy, "and you want it to be a boy, don't you, Margaret?" "Yes, we hope it may be a boy." "Well, whether it is a boy or a girl, I must be its godmother. You will let that be a promise, won't you?" A long conversation ensued, and Lucy bade Margaret farewell until the morrow, with a delightful consciousness that she had achieved the position she had so much desired.