Here she made the acquaintance of the Dean of Exeter, a man, of course, a good deal older than herself, but of fine presence and agreeable manners. He had always been a good deal of a stickler for the celibacy of the clergy; but it seems Theo found means to change his mind, for she had not been at home a week before he followed her, and asked her of her father in marriage. It was one of those happy matches to which there seems no objection on any side. The dean was rich and greatly respected. He had beside his deanery a cure in the same parish where my lady Jemima, my lord's sister, resided, and a beautiful rectory, where in Theo might concoct sick messes and make baby linen to her heart's content. She had a small property of her own, and my lord gave her a portion as to his own daughter. Mrs. Martha's wedding (which I should have mentioned in its proper place) was celebrated very quietly, as we were all in recent mourning for my mother; but my lord was determined that Theo should have a grand wedding. So she did, indeed, with all proper ceremony from the first going to church to the bedding of the bride. Matters of that sort have greatly changed since that time, and I cannot but think for the better, though I do hold that weddings should be celebrated publicly and joyfully, not huddled up as if they were something to be ashamed of. If matters go on as they have begun, I expect my granddaughters will jump into a carriage at the church door, and drive off to get as far as possible from all their friends. However; Theo's wedding was public enough. We had the house full of guests, and among them two whom I had no wish to see, and beheld with dread as birds of ill omen, and so indeed they were. These were no other than my cousin Betty and her husband. They had come to the neighborhood to visit a cousin of Mr. Lovel's, and my lady meeting them and learning who they were, thought she could do no less than invite them to the wedding. My lord did not look too well pleased when he heard of it, for he had taken a great dislike to Betty upon their first meeting, but he could not treat her otherwise than courteously in his own house. As to Mr. Lovel, he never seemed to me to have any character, but to be a mere lay figure for the display of whatever mode in clothes or manners happened to be uppermost. Betty had not been one evening in the house before she began exercising her powers. My lord was praising lip the institution of marriage, of which he was a great promoter, and my lady, smiling, called him a match-maker. "Well, I am a match-maker, I don't deny it," said he. "Would you be ashamed of it if you were me, cousin Lovel?" Betty had been sitting rather silent, and I suppose he meant to include her in the conversation. She answered at once— "No, indeed, my lord. It is a good vocation. I am sure I have always thanked Vevette for betraying me to my brother, and so bringing my marriage to pass sooner than I could have done."