'I wonder,' said Mrs. Chadwick, speaking to herself rather than to her companion--'I wonder what she will be called: whether she will continue Lady Forestfield, or become Lady Uffington. They are both "Ladies," of course; but I don't think if I had been a viscountess I should like descending to be a mere baronet's wife. I don't know how that is, and I shall have to wait till we get to town before I can learn, for there is no one here to tell me. I could not ask Lady Forestfield under the circumstances, and Eleanor is dreadfully ignorant on such subjects. By the way, I wonder where Eleanor is?' It was lucky that Mrs. Chadwick did not know; for certainly Eleanor had no desire to be interrupted by her sister at that moment. After she had received the news from Lady Forestfield, and broken it to Mrs. Chadwick, Eleanor, on May's assurance that she could render her no assistance, had returned to the boudoir, and was standing in a pensive attitude at the oriel window, musing over what had occurred, when Uffington, who had finished his luncheon, entered the room. He stole quietly up behind her and called her by her name. Eleanor started. 'I had no notion you were here, Sir Nugent,' she said with a blush. 'Fortune has so far favoured me as to find you alone, Miss Irvine,' said Uffington, 'for I have something very special to say to you; and under the present aspect of affairs it seems doubtful whether I may have another chance. I am a man of few words, but little speech is necessary to declare my intentions, and I am willing to accept your decision in a single syllable. Since I first saw you I have been irresistibly attracted towards you, and have remarked in you qualities such as I have never noticed in another woman. In short, I have learned to love you very dearly, and though my life has been neither an uneventful nor an unclouded one, I think I may say there has been nothing in it which should prevent me from placing the rest of it at your disposal if you will honour me by becoming my wife.' Why stop to record the trembling words of happiness in which Eleanor accepted this proposal, so oddly and so bluntly made? Nugent Uffington had been the ideal man of her life, and she now saw him at her feet, conscious too that love such as his was not transient, but of that enduring quality which lasts for life. CHAPTER XVIII HUSBAND AND WIFE.