"_You_ look below the surface, dearest; but don't go over it all now; I have a piece of news to tell you, which has made me very angry. Charlotte Benson says she is engaged to marry your uncle. Can anything be done?" "Write at once to aunt Letitia to stop it." "That is the most extraordinary part of the whole affair; she does not disapprove it." "She must be mad!" said Gilbert, shortly; "what does my mother say?" "She is afraid of exciting you about it; but she is very much disturbed." "She may well be. He must be looking after your aunt's money." "Shall I write to Aunt Letitia?" "Yes; I only wish I were well, and not laid on the shelf like this, and I would go to Wells to-morrow." "I thought of writing to Gratian and Ralph, and Harry is still at Fair Acres. Aunt Letitia thinks a great deal of what Gratian says." "Better write to Aunt Letitia, and I will tell you what to say. Get my mother to write also, and surely you have been honest with the girl?" "Very honest indeed," Joyce said, laughing; "a little too honest!" The letter was dictated and posted, with one from Mrs. Arundel. Postage was an object in those days, so that the two letters went under one cover, carefully sealed by Gilbert's hand. For some days there was silence, and no one knew what turn events had taken, and there was no answer to the letters. A week passed, and then came a letter from Charlotte herself. "MY DEAR JOYCE,--You will see by the date of this letter I am at Bath. I was married to dear Lord Maythorne yesterday. He wished for a very quiet wedding, and he had a special license, and the ceremony was performed at St. Cuthbert's. Dear auntie was present, and dear Gratian and Melville came in from Fair Acres. We went to the 'Swan,' and had an elegant breakfast, and then we posted here. It is very strange to me to feel I am Lady Maythorne; but with such a _dear_, _kind_, delightful husband, I ought to be happy. Pray accept kind love from us both. "Your truly affectionate cousin, "CHARLOTTE MAYTHORNE. "Pulteney Street, Bath, "_November 14th, 1831._" This, then, was the end of Miss Falconer's training, this the reward for all her care; and the strange part of it was that, though Lord Maythorne's own relations were distressed and sad, at the thought of Charlotte's folly in committing herself to the tender mercies of such a man, Miss Falconer was _not_ distressed. Gratian, who came in to spend a day or two in Clifton with her husband soon after, gave a graphic description of the whole affair. [Illustration: Wells Cathedral from Bishop's Fields] Miss Falconer, she declared, was tearful, but in her secret heart elated. Charlotte would grace any position, Lord Maythorne said. She was strikingly like in manner and voice and bearing to a reigning beauty at one of the German baths. "We are none of us likely to go there, you know," Gratian said, "so we can't vouch for the truth of this."