“You do not mean—” he began excitedly.
“I do,” she answered composedly.
And they were engaged then and there. He wanted to be married before they left England, but she refused, saying their wedding must be in a Flemish cathedral, and their wedding breakfast in a Flemish house. And so it was; and No. 20 Rue Neuve is now their headquarters, while the household of the Belgian heiress is under the control of the old Flemish woman who once shut that door in the face of the heiress' husband.
M. Van Muyden is happy and contented, and a merrier Christmas day was never spent at Aldred than the day of this unexpected recognition.
Midnight Mass, Christmas-tree, school-feast, and all succeeded each other to our perfect satisfaction; the health of the heroine of “Cousin Jim's” tale was drunk in the “wassail-bowl” on Christmas night, and, as the happy, excited, and tired Christmas party separated on the day following New Year's day, every one agreed that it was a pity such things so very seldom happened in real life.
Fleurange.
By Mrs. Craven, Author Of “A Sister's Story.”
Translated From The French, With Permission.