But Gerald was not likely to minimise his own good fortune, and in his present mood he did not resent, but rather gratefully accepted, the words which reminded him how great it was. Harry received him with all his old frank enthusiasm. There did not seem to be in his mind a thought of any condescension that his sister was showing, or any unmerited blessing that his friend had obtained. It was enough for him that the friend of his boyhood was to be allied to him by a closer band than before. Enough that two souls most dear to him on earth were soon to become one. He only protested a little that they had not treated him with the candour for which he might have looked. ‘It’s too bad,’ he said, ‘old man. You ought to have given me a hint. I never thought of anything between you and Ethel. But she is a downright good girl, and if I were not her brother, I declare I would marry her myself.’ ‘Would you, though?’ said Ethel laughingly. ‘Perhaps I should have had a word to say about that.’ And so he turned upon his sister, asking her if he and she had not always been the confidants of each other’s secrets, and complaining that she had deceived him for the first time. Poor Harry! If he had lived longer in the world, he would have known that Love carries the secret of deception in his pocket. The lover, until he is successful in his love, will hide it from his best and nearest friend. It needs a woman to penetrate that disguise. So Harry Venniker’s birthday was celebrated in a way that nobody had thought of. In the evening Gerald Eversley remarked that he hoped he had given Harry a welcome birthday present. It was arranged that Gerald should acquaint his father and Mrs. Eversley privately with the change that had come over his prospects in life. He did not write to Mrs. Eversley, but he wrote to his father a long letter full of Ethel’s virtues and graces, and of all that she had said and done, and all that Lady Venniker had said and done, and so on; he asked him to let Mrs. Eversley know the contents of the letter. Two days later he received answers from them both. They were very different. Mr. Eversley wrote that the news had come as an overwhelming surprise, it was beyond what he could have dreamt of, but Gerald had made his way into a society of which his father and mother had had no experience; he could have no other desire or prayer than the welfare of his dear son--the son for whom his affection had been always so intense--he rejoiced to learn that the noble lady whom he had chosen for his wife was a humble follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, he would give her a welcome ‘as to my own daughter, if she will permit me,’ to his home and his heart, and he knew that there was no blessing on earth like a marriage cemented in the fear of heaven.