In course of time a family of three boys and two girls were born to the Duke and Duchess. A great christening party was in preparation. The Duchess was worried about the christening robe, that had not yet arrived, and she said to Janet,-- "Indeed, Janet, this delay reminds me of my anxiety over the chests that were to bring me my first finery--dost remember, at Crandlemar?" "Aye. It does not take much of a memory to think back seven years!" "Seven years! Why, Janet, thou art growing old!" "Nay, sweet Mistress; but the two generations I now nurse are very young." "'Tis true.--But what thinkest thou could detain the chest? Father Pomphrey cannot be kept waiting for a christening robe. And to think of Lady Ann being baptized in a common frock! 'Twould make Bettie St. Mar laugh; she already feels quite jealous because we are the first to have Father Pomphrey. And methinks, Janet, now that she is in expectancy--she will so vibrate 'twixt France and England,--fearing she will not be near Father Pomphrey for the christening--that little Julian and François will forget which is home." "She need not do that; he could go to France." "Nay, not so; for he leaves at once for Rome and will not return to England ere summer, meaning not to stop at all in France." "Ah! that makes me think of what I heard him say to Monsieur St. Mar in the nursery. 'Twas something about a christening. Monsieur said: 'Thou art expected at Crandlemar Castle?' and Father Pomphrey answered: 'Aye, sometime before next Michaelmas.'" "Then Lady Bettie will remain in England mayhap." "'Tis possible." "What did he say of the children, Janet?" "Of my lord Duke's and thine?" "Aye." "He said not a word of them in particular, but fondled all alike, calling each by name, and now I think on't, I wonder he could remember a dozen or so, when he has not yet been three days in the castle. 'Twas 'Lady Mary' and 'Sir Jasper' and 'Lady Jane' and 'Lady Kate' and 'Lord Ivor'; and for each he had a story. And Monsieur grew tired, and my lord Duke asked Sir Julian if the children did not tire him also, and he answered: 'Duke, there is a peculiarly wholesome knowledge that we cannot obtain save through a child's mind; and while in the companionship of children, we are surrounded by a field of flowers, whose glory fructifies the good germ within us, and Wisdom--that tallest flower, that knows no harvest--springs up at prime, blossoms forth at compline and grows a fragrant staff, upon which man leans in the night of life.' Then they walked away, and I heard no more." "Dear Father Pomphrey--" Then for a moment the Duchess looked with a far-away expression out upon the snow-covered landscape, then, on a sudden, she said, almost pettishly,--"But, Janet, what keeps the chest?" "Perhaps 'tis Providence." "What dost mean; how Providence?"