She was much better when the time for the next train drew near, but there was a steady avoidance of her mother, who had deceived her so,—a coldness of manner which Mrs. Barrett felt but did not mind. So long as her end was obtained she was not scrupulous as to the means. She loved her daughter in her way, and now that she was Mrs. Howard Schuyler she would like to make much of her and be made much of in return, but if Edith was foolish enough to resent the means she had used to place her where she was, she could not help it, and bore her punishment very meekly, and was not at all demonstrative when at last her daughter said good-by to her just as she said it to the others and took her seat in the carriage. Col. Schuyler noticed the formal leave-taking, and though he was better pleased to have it thus than he would have been had there been kissing and crying over the woman he secretly disliked and distrusted, he was a little surprised, and wondered if it were a feeling of pride born of her elevation which had so soon affected Edith. Alas, he little understood her or dreamed of the conflict going on in her mind as she was borne rapidly along the road, through the beautiful English country, to the place where they were to spend the night and where Edith meant to tell him all. CHAPTER XIX. THE BRIDAL DAYS. Dinner was over in the house where they had stopped for the night, and drawing his chair near to the open window of their little parlor, Col. Schuyler sat down to enjoy the sweet summer air, as it came stealing in laden with the perfume of flowers and the freshly-cut hay upon the lawn of the castle near by. Edith was in the dressing-room adjoining, pretending to arrange her hair, but in reality trying to make up her mind how to begin the story she must tell. And how would he receive it? Would he spurn her at once, or, rather than let the world know of his disgrace, would he keep her with him, a wife merely in name, whom he never could love or respect? “Oh, Father in Heaven,” she whispered, “you know I am not to blame in this; help me to tell him, and incline him to receive it aright.” Strengthened by this prayer for aid, she gave herself no time, for further hesitation, but going swiftly to her husband’s side she laid her hand on his shoulder in an appealing kind of way and said to him, softly: “Colonel Schuyler!”