I explained the whole matter to my lady from beginning to end, and she was pleased to say that I had wholly exculpated myself, and to take shame to herself for being so ready to believe evil. She kissed me and said she was sorry I was going away, and bade me always think of Stanton Court as my home. She had been very generous to me before, and she now gave me a gold watch and a beautiful set of pearl ornaments which she had bought in Exeter. I believe she talked my lord over that night, for the next day he told me he was sorry I was going away, and if I would even now give up the plan, I should have a home at the court as long as I liked, and he would not tease me to marry any one. But the die was cast. The step was taken which was the beginning of a long journey—far longer indeed, than any of us thought, and I had no mind to turn back. [Illustration] [Illustration] CHAPTER XVI. LONDON. THE next day I went to Exeter, from which place we were to set out for London in a few days. I found Theo living in a noble house, with everything pleasant about her, and enjoying herself to the full. She had no fancy for the journey to London, and would, I believe, much have preferred going to the country rectory, whither Mr. Dean usually retired in summer. We rode out to see the place, and truly I did not wonder at her love for it—all about it was so beautiful. There were no gentlemen's houses very near, but my Lady Jemima, my lord's sister, lived, as I have said, in an old mansion which had once been a convent of gray nuns. The house stood on a rising ground, and was beautifully embosomed in very ancient timber and a part of this same wood reached even to the walls of the rectory itself. We visited the little village school, taught by a charming old dame, and where Theo distributed buns, gingerbread, and comfits with a lavish hand. Then we went into the house, where all was in order, and where the old housekeeper and her blooming neat maids welcomed us with evident pleasure at seeing their mistress. We also called upon my Lady Jemima, who was as great a contrast to my own Aunt Jem as could well be conceived. She was sitting at work among her family of maidens, who were all busy with their fingers, while one read aloud. There were six of them, all dressed alike in gray gowns and white caps with blue ribbons, and I must say they looked very bright and happy. Lady Jemima was a plain woman, with none of the family beauty of color, but she had a most sweet expression, at once benign and commanding. She sent away her young ladies to walk, and then sat down to talk with us. "You have married off the last of your old family, have you not?" asked Theo. "Yes, only a month ago, and the child hath done well, I think. Another has gone to be a governess in the family of a distant cousin of ours, a rich sugar refiner's wife in Bristol, and in one way or another, they are all scattered and doing well for themselves. But my house is nearly full again."