Lady Farley smiled.
"It takes all my courage," continued Lady Esdaile, "to scold my own maid about things that really matter—such as the way she does my hair and puts my clothes on; and I really have none to spare for dinners, and things like that. But I do wonder if Isabel will be happy. I should think a small house would feel pokey, even with a really nice man like Mr. Seaton. Shouldn't you?"
"Stuffy to a degree, I should imagine. Especially if one knew that one might be reigning as Lady Wrexham at Vernacre instead."
And Lady Farley sighed again; for she had been very proud of Isabel.
CHAPTER X.
Eden.
As a place of residence Eden was closed
When Adam and Eve left home;
And no one can live there, it is supposed,
For many a year to come.
But now and again, in the summer days,
The gardens are open thrown
That the public may walk down the grassy ways:
And nobody walks alone.
Paul and Isabel were sitting in Kensington Gardens under the very tree where he asked her if she would be his wife. They now considered this tree their own peculiar property, and felt inclined to prosecute as trespassers any impertinent persons who dared so much as to walk beneath its shadow; and here was their usual trysting-place in those long and happy afternoons when the year and their engagement were alike young.
"Isn't it dreadful to think how we lived all those years without even having seen each other?" remarked Paul.
Isabel sighed. "It was a shocking waste of time!"