"I fancy they are staying somewhere in Worcester. We should have liked to have Lucy over for the wedding; but--you know how it is: we could not ask him." Mrs. Todhetley nodded. She wore her grey silk gown that night, which always seemed to make her look taller and thinner than ever, and a white lace cap with pink ribbons. A pink bow was in her light hair, and she had put on her beautiful earrings. There is some thorn in most families, and Lucy was the one in that of Ashton. She was educated at the best school in Worcester, and came home at eighteen brimful of romance. It lay in her nature. You'd hardly have found so pretty and sentimental a girl in the county. Because her name was Lucy Ashton, she identified herself with Scott's Lucy Ashton, and looked out for a Master of Ravenswood. These sentimental girls sometimes come to grief, for they possess only three parts of their share of plain common-sense. The Master of Ravenswood came in the shape of Captain Bird, a tall, dark man, with a flaming coat and fierce moustache. He paid court to Lucy, and she fell in love with him before a week was over. The Ashtons turned their backs upon him: there was something in the man they did not like, in spite of the red coat and the black moustache. But he won Lucy over--he had heard of her fortune, you see--and she promised to marry him. She was a gentle, yielding, timid girl then; but her love was strong, and she ran away. She ran away and was married the same morning at St. Helen's church in Worcester, in which parish Bird had been staying. It was the talk of the county; but when the commotion had subsided, every one began to pity Lucy, saying she would have plenty of time and cause for repentance. After all, he was not a real captain now. He had sold out of the army; and there arose a rumour that he had done something wrong and was obliged to sell out. Mr. Ashton had loved Lucy better than all his children. He forgave the marriage for Lucy's sake, and had them home on a visit, and presented her with a handsome sum. But he made a great mistake--I've heard the Squire say it often--in not settling it upon her. Bird spent it as soon as he well could; and he would have spent some more that came to Lucy when her father died, only that it was left in Robert Ashton's hands to be paid to her quarterly. People called Bird a blackleg: said he was about the worst man that ever stepped. Robert had offered Lucy a home at Timberdale Court, but she would not leave her husband: she had married him, she said, for better or worse. If he came to be transported--and he was going on for it--the chances were that Lucy would follow him to Van Diemen's Land. "I say, there's six o'clock!" exclaimed Mr. Coney, as the hour struck. "Jane, what have you done with Robert?" "Not anything, papa. He said he should be here half-an-hour before dinner." "And it will soon be half-an-hour after it," returned old Coney. "If he does not make haste, we shall sit down without him."