Miss Trebasson had no more thought of Dolly as a rival than she might have taken of a kitten or a puppy; and yet when Mortomley lost his heart, being a woman rarely wise and with somewhat of a man's instincts, she understood he had done so for the same reason in great measure as she loved Dolly herself, because the creature was gay, sun-shiny, brimful of life and spirits,--because, in a word, she was Dolly Gerace. Miss Trebasson had seen Dolly in the dumps,--she had seen Dolly rueful--Dolly in sorrow--Dolly crying fit to break her heart--Dolly living with a father who, though loving, never interfered with her--Dolly living with an aunt who never ceased to interfere; and yet, through all these changes, Dolly left the impression that in the country where she lived a fine climate was the rule, not the exception. When Mortomley fell in love with Dolly, Miss Trebasson waited curiously, and--she was only human and a woman--anxiously, to see if her friend would at length develope any of those qualities which are supposed, more or less erroneously, to attach to a person destined to exist throughout eternity as well as time, but she watched in vain. Dolly went through her engagement and her marriage with her customary sun-shiny cheerfulness. "She _has_ no soul," decided Miss Trebasson, "she does not care for him one bit;" and the tears Miss Trebasson shed that night were very bitter, for she herself had cared for Archibald Mortomley very much, and she doubted greatly whether Dolly Gerace was the wife he ought to have chosen. However, he had chosen her, and there was an end of the matter. Mr. Trebasson gave her away; Miss Trebasson, Miss Halling, and a couple more young ladies were bridesmaids. Mortomley had been sorely exercised to find a best man, but at length he hit on Henry Werner. The wedding breakfast was by desire of Lord Darsham held at the Court. Thus Mortomley came by his wife. A few sentences will explain how she came by her being:-- A certain Mr. Gerace having been presented by his pupil, Lord Darsham, with the family living of Great Dassell, which was not a very great thing after all, being only about three hundred and fifty pounds a year, beside the Vicarage-house and glebe lands, the Reverend Mr. Gerace immediately married an eminently discreet, Christian-minded, and unendowed young governess, for which act he had no excuse to offer except that he loved her. This justification might have been all very well if, in addition to a tender heart, the clergyman had not possessed a weary list of college debts. He had been foolish once,--he had to pay for that folly to the last day of his life. He thought he could do much with his income as vicar of Great Dassell, and yet he was only able to live and go on paying those weary, weary bills till it was impossible for him to do anything more on earth.