"God bless you, dear! I will do my best to make you happy."
"I'm as happy as I can be, Jim; but perhaps if you gave me another kiss----"
So that great matter settled itself in the great settlement, an there is little more to tell.
Sir George insisted on the Greskis coming out to Knoyle for a time, until he should find some suitable opening for Louis. Nothing was too good for such friends-in-need [t?] their recovered Jim, and they all delighted in Mme Greski's fine foreign manners and the lively Tatia's exuberant joy after their deliverance from Russia.
Lord Deseret came down from London to the wedding, and brought with him two magnificent presents--diamonds from himself, which must have represented an unusually good night's winnings at the green board, and a wonderful rope of pearls from Mme Beteta, at which Gracie was inclined at first to look askance, though her eyes could not help shining at sight of them.
"You may take them without any qualms, my dear," said Lord Deseret. "It is possible that you owe your husband to madame"--and he may have added, to himself, "in more senses than one."
"Why? How is that?" asked Gracie quickly.
"Madame is now the morganatic wife of one of the Russian Grand Dukes, and I have every reason to believe that it was due to urgent representations on her part, some time before she consented to marry him, that our two boys were not allowed out of Sebastopol. She thought they would be safer inside, and I have no doubt she was right. The chance inside were about ten to one in their favour, I should say."
"Then, indeed, I thank her," said Gracie heartily; "though old Jim does look so glum at having been cotton-woolled like that. But I don't quite understand why the lady put herself about so much on their account."
And that was one of the things she never did understand.