A bridal dress and veil were, however, quickly provided, and Bride was content that it should be so, knowing that her white would be pleasing to the eye of the sick man. She herself was calmly and tranquilly happy, spending much time beside the patient, and the rest in earnest musings and meditation, or in visits to the poor, amongst whom so much of her life had been passed. It was a clear, sunny morning toward the end of January when Bride awoke with the consciousness that it was her wedding-day--though so quiet and uneventful a wedding as was to be hers perhaps no Duke’s daughter had yet known. Even her name would not be changed, as Eustace had playfully told her, nor would she leave the shelter of her father’s roof. All the change that would take place would be that she and her husband would take up their quarters in a suite of rooms specially prepared for them, with Bride’s nurse and Eustace’s man for their especial attendants. But the young wife would continue to take her place at her father’s table when he took his meals, waiting upon her husband and sharing his at different hours, such hours as were prescribed by his medical man. Although all this sounded strange to outsiders, who heard with amaze that Lady Bride was going to marry her father’s heir while he was still crippled and helpless, it did not seem strange to her. Others said it was an obvious marriage of convenience and diplomacy, but never had been a marriage of purer and truer affection. Bride robed herself with a happy heart and a serene face, and was not surprised to receive a message at the last that Abner would much like a few words with his young mistress, if she could spare them for him. He was in the great conservatory when she went down--the place where so many talks had taken place between them, and where Bride pictured Eustace lying in comfort and pleasure before very long, surrounded by sweet scents and beautiful blossoms. Abner held in his hand a beautiful bouquet of white flowers, and Bride thanked him with one of her sweetest smiles as she took it from his hands. “I did want to see yu my own self, my Ladybird,” he said in a voice that shook a little, “to wish yu every joy and a blessing on your new life. I know there will be a blessing on it, for there’s One above as has yu very near His heart; but yu’ll let an old man as has loved yu ever since yu were a babe in the nurse’s arms give yu his blessing to-day.” Bride held out her slim white hand, which the old man took and carried very tenderly to his lips; and her voice shook a little as she said, “Thank you for that blessing, Abner. I feel my heart the warmer for it. We know that this world’s happiness is but a small thing compared to the glory that is to be revealed; but yet we must be thankful when it does come to us, and take it as God’s best gift. I think that your heart is at peace now, and that your worst trouble is laid at rest.”