'"No, no," cried my mother in a voice which sounded as if she was angry with me; and yet she held me very close all the time. "You will be my Frances, my only daughter, just the same. A wife's duties are the same, in whatever station she is placed: and who can teach you to love, honour, and obey your husband, as well as I can? But what am I talking of!" she added in a different tone, seeing that I was looking at her, very much puzzled.
'Mamma, who was usually so quiet and composed, had a bright colour in her cheeks, and was talking faster and louder than I had ever heard her in my life before. She smiled when she saw how surprised I looked, and said, more in her natural voice:
'"You are too young, Frances, to understand quite what I was thinking about. I could have wished that your marriage could have been put off till you were old enough to know your own mind; but your father says it must take place at once. Of course he knows best; so that may be considered as settled. All I want you to remember is, that the promise you make on your wedding day you will some day be called upon to fulfil. And now run away and tell the others all about it."
'I said "yes;" but I do not think I quite took in all mamma meant, so eager was I to obey the last part of her commands and tell my wonderful news to the boys. I could not find any one in the nursery but nurse and Rebecca, who were quite as much surprised and struck with my tidings as I could have wished. Nurse said, "Mercy on us! Dear heart alive!" three times over, and then begged I would not forget my poor old nursey when I was a grand madam; while Rebecca took to calling me "my lady" from that day forward, till mamma discovered it and stopped her. But where were the boys? I cared much more for what Oliver thought of the matter than for the opinion of any one else in the world. And, besides—though I liked it—I found the servants' sudden respect rather embarrassing. Miles and Roger were out-of-doors, nurse said, "in some pickle or another," she'd "warrant them." Her words were certainly prophetic; for, after a long hunt, I discovered Miles on the top branch of a very rotten old ash tree, which overhung the deepest part of the pond in the park; endeavouring with a long looped string to catch the sails of his favourite toy boat, which had floated far away from the shore; while Roger, on the very edge of the steep bank, was making violent efforts to reach it with the end of a slender pole.
'Nothing I could say would induce them to come away, till I announced that I saw Shad and Oliver riding into the stable-yard, and proposed that we should race to meet them, and ask Shad to rescue the unhappy boat. Roger set off directly, and Miles got out of the tree so quickly that I really thought he must tumble into the pond in doing so. He scrambled down safe, however, with very green clothes and a very red face; and after a rush across the park, and a few words with Oliver, the two carried off the good-natured Shad between them, and I was left alone with my eldest brother. He was in very high spirits, and whenever I tried to begin my story, burst in with some new description of the run.
'"What a pity you didn't come, Frances!" said he at last. "By the by, what did my father want with you?"
'"That is just what I have been trying to tell you ever since you came in," said I pettishly; "but you would not listen; and I'm sure it's much more important than about the fox getting into Farmer Grimley's yard, or how you rode down all the pigs."
'"Why, what can it be?" said Oliver, looking intensely surprised. "You generally like to hear about all those sort of things so much, Frances."
'"Yes, yes, I know; but oh! Oliver, what do you think of this? I am going to be married to the Earl of Desmond!" Oliver opened his eyes so wide for a moment that I thought he would never be able to shut them again, and then, much to my astonishment and, I am afraid, disgust, went off into a hearty fit of laughter.
'"You going to be married! Oh Frances, I can't believe it! What can the Earl of Desmond want to marry you for?" I do not think Oliver meant to be rude, but brothers are not over particular; and I felt deeply offended. I, who had been treated with so much attention by my father's friend, who had been taken into mamma's confidence, and who was about soon to become, as I phrased it to myself, "a married woman," was I to be laughed at by a little boy a whole year younger than myself?