Ned’s words of love, of gratitude, of almost tearful remorse, are too sacred to be repeated. He had reached his goal at last, and, looking back upon the past, felt that all the troubles which had lain in his path were but a light price to have paid for the treasure he had won!
Upstairs at the window of the girls’ bedroom Kitty Maitland peered through her spectacles at the flutter of Maud’s dress behind the bushes in the garden, and knitted her brows, in her anxiety to account for the presence of a dark stain around the waist! Presently the bushes parted company for a few yards, and the stain was discovered to be neither more nor less than a coat sleeve belonging to Mr Ned Talbot! Kitty cleared her throat, and chanted in a high, clear tone—
“A marriage has been arranged, and will shortly take place, between Mr Edward Mortimer Talbot and Maud, eldest daughter of—”
A stampede towards the window interrupted the conclusion of the sentence, and the sisters stared at the unconscious couple with eager scrutiny. They peered to right and left, craned their necks to one side and then the other, rushed to a second window to obtain a better view, and finally turned back and faced each other with expressions of awed conviction.
“It is—for a ducat! Oh dear, what a nuisance!” cried Agatha pitifully. “What shall we do without our Maud? First Nan, and then Maud—the house will be lost without them!”
“Our loss is their gain. We must be resigned. It is what we must expect. One bird after another will fly away, and leave the old nest bare. It is the order of Nature,” sighed Elsie sadly.
“Another wedding! Another bridesmaid’s dress. How s–implay lovelay!” cried Christabel rapturously; but Nan stood apart with clasped hands, and dark eyes full of tears.
“The only thing,” she sighed to herself—“the only thing I had left to wish for. Oh, how thankful I am! What a dear world it is! How good God is to us all!”