He was so happy that he was speechless, and he feared a moment's delay. Until he had Maria safely on board the "Dolphin," he could not feel certain of her possession. The suspense made him silent and nervous; he could only look at his bride and clasp her hands, until she had passed safely through the crowded streets and was securely in the cabin of the waiting ship. Then, with the wind in her sails and the sunshine on her white deck, the "Dolphin" went swiftly out to sea. But not until the low-lying land was quite lost to sight was Lord Medway completely satisfied. Then he suffered the rapture in his heart to find words. He folded Maria in her furs, and clasped her close to his side, and as the daylight faded and the stars shone out upon her lovely face, he told her a thousand times over, how dear, how sweet, how beautiful she was! Ah! Youth is sweet! and Life is dear to Love and Youth; and these two were supremely happy while whole days long they talked of their past and their future. And though the journey lasted their honeymoon out, they were not sorry. They were going to be in London for the Christmas feast, and Medway remembered that he had promised Mr. Semple to "bring Lady Medway home before the New Year," and he was pleased to redeem his word. "For I liked your father, Maria," he said. "He seemed to me one of the finest gentlemen I ever met, and----" "My stepmother is a lady also," Maria answered, "one of the Norfolk Spencers; and many women would have been worse to me than she was. Sometimes I was in the wrong too." "They must keep Christmas with us. _Christmas in our own home!_ Maria, you hold me by my heart. Sweet, say what you wish, and you shall have it." And indeed it would be impossible to express in written words a tithe of the great content they had. For all their hopes and plans and dreams of future happiness were "but Ministers of Love And fed his sacred flame," and the bliss so long afar, at length so nigh, rested in the great peace of its attainment.