'When I awoke on the morning of my wedding day, with a vague consciousness that something unusual was going to happen, the first thing that met my eyes was a dazzling heap of white satin that completely covered the table; and I had stared dreamily at it for some minutes before the fact that I was looking at my wedding dress dawned upon me. Then suddenly a clear recollection of what was going to take place came with a rush into my mind. I raised myself on my elbow and gazed round the room, which seemed quite spread over with silk and satin, ribbons and lace. And there was nurse bustling about amidst all the finery, herself in more gorgeous array than I had ever seen her wear before.
'"Now, Mistress Frances, my dear," quoth she, when she saw that I was awake, "'tis high time to get up and be dressed. Why, you've slept full an hour later than usual; and I wouldn't wake you, because I heard you tossing about last night, hours and hours after you should have been asleep and dreaming."
'This was true; for I had been in such a feverish state of excitement the night before, that though mamma had sent me to bed earlier than usual, I had heard the church clock strike one before I could go to sleep. And now, though the day to which I had been looking forward for the last month had actually come at last, though my wedding-dress was lying in all its glory before my eyes, I felt far more inclined to sink back on my pillow and fall asleep again, than to get up and be dressed, as nurse proposed.
'"What, sweetheart!" she went on, as I blinked my eyes drowsily; "sure, you haven't forgotten you are going to be married to-day? And there's the young gentleman himself playing in the garden with your brother, and never so much as set eyes on his bride!" These words of nurse's effectually roused me.
'"What!" cried I, wide awake at length; "did he come then, nurse, after all? And was it very late? And what is he like?" I took a flying leap out of bed before I had finished my string of questions, and, mounting on the window-sill, looked out upon the garden and park. You know the window I mean; my bedroom was the same that Christie and Dolly have now—only, in my time the uneven oak boards were not hidden by a carpet, and there was one immense four-post bed hung with green taffeta, instead of two little curtainless French ones. No pretty toilet-table was in existence then, decked out with pink calico and white muslin. That little square table in the library, carved with grapes and vine-leaves, and men with goat's legs, used to stand in the middle of my room in those days, and I used to look at myself in a small oval mirror in an ebony frame that hung on the wall, and the top of which I had ornamented with my fox's brush. Extremely bare and uncomfortable such a room would doubtless seem to you, but it never struck me in that light. Compared to the boy's room, it was extremely well furnished—almost luxurious. However, I must not dwell upon my dear old room and its furniture. I liked it because it was my own, and I kept all my treasures there; but of course I cannot expect you to take the same interest in it—only, I thought perhaps you might like to know how Christie's bedroom looked when I woke there on my wedding morning nearly two centuries ago. It was a lovely morning, though very sharp and wintry. The sky was a pale-blue one, without a single cloud; and a little snow had fallen during the night, but only enough to scatter a few flakes among the dark glossy leaves and red berries of the holly trees, and to sprinkle the country with a light powdery covering that sparkled like diamond-dust in the sun. I could see the boys as I looked from my window: there they were, as nurse had said, careering about the garden—Roger's small wiry figure, Miles' square sturdy one, and Oliver a head and shoulders above them both; and there was also a fourth figure, towards which I strained my eyes with intense interest. But at such a distance very little was to be seen; my curiosity was obliged to be satisfied for the present with the discovery that he was taller and stouter than Oliver, but neither his face nor even the colour of his dress was to be distinguished. This bird's-eye view of my bridegroom was unsatisfactory, being cut short by nurse, who dragged me indignantly down from the window-seat just as Lord Desmond was aiming at Oliver's head with a snow-ball, and I was watching in breathless excitement to see whether it would hit.
'"Lack-a-mercy! Mistress Frances, do you want to catch your death of cold on your wedding day, and for all the company to be at church before you are dressed?"
'Not wishing to bring down either of these calamities on my head, I reluctantly allowed myself to be drawn away from the window, and submitted passively to a longer and more elaborate toilet than I had ever undergone in my life before. Meanwhile I consoled myself by asking nurse all manner of questions about the bridegroom,—what he was like, who were his companions, and the time and manner of his arrival. I could not get a great deal of news out of her,—she was too much wrapped up in the splendours of my bridal gear. Only now and then, between her bursts of enthusiasm over each piece of finery in turn, and her pathetic warnings to me to "have a care of such brave, goodly raiment," did she find time to impart in snatches the following information.
'Sir Harry Mountfort had arrived the previous night with his ward the young Lord Desmond, and his little niece Mistress Agnes Blount, who was to be one of my bride-maidens. The house of New Court, Sir Harry's home, was about twenty miles from Horsemandown, and the travellers were nearly half-way upon their road when a report reached them of highwaymen being in the neighbourhood. This rumour, though vague and doubtful, was nevertheless somewhat alarming, as the country through which their journey lay was extremely wild and lonely; especially one part of the road through the Boarhurst woods—those woods where you had your picnic last summer. There were no broad, smooth carriage-drives through them, though, in our time; only a narrow bridle-path, through which Lord Desmond and his companions must ride in single file. So Sir Harry thought it prudent to go back for a larger escort, and it was on that account that they had not reached Horsemandown till ten o'clock in the evening (just an hour after mamma had, much to my indignation, ruthlessly sent me to bed). Thus much I contrived to draw out of nurse, by dint of persistent cross-examination all the time I was being dressed; also, that Lord Desmond was a dark young gentleman, a fair-spoken lad enough, and not ill-favoured, but nought to set beside Master Oliver, with his bonnie blue eyes and yellow locks.
'"As to little Mistress Blount, she was so wearied, poor lamb!" said nurse, "that she scarce kept her eyes open to eat her supper; and when my lady told me to put her to bed, she was not so loth to come as you were yesternight, Mistress Frances."
'I was rather anxious to go down to breakfast in full bridal array, from the rich lace veil to the long white gloves embroidered with silver thread; but nurse was greatly scandalized at such a suggestion.