Mrs. Dorriman Volume Iii Part 24

"You are very kind, and I beg to thank you and the Duke very much.

Yes, I shall be very grateful to you for so befriending me; it is good of you, who know me so little; of course it is also good of your nephew.

"Yours truly,

"GRACE RIVERS."

"My dear Grace, now all is most delightfully arranged," said Lady Lyons; "now it will not be in a corner."

"The place is not changed," said Grace. "I told you before I did not mean a corner."

"You do take everything so much as a matter of course," said Lady Lyons, irritably.

"How ought I to take things? Ought I to laugh or cry? Tell me what is the proper thing to do?"

"You might be a little pleased."

"I am very much pleased. I think the d.u.c.h.ess is very kind."

"She must have taken a fancy to you, my dear."

"I think not. I suspect she does not know me by sight."

"Then why do this? What do you think yourself?"

"I think it is all for Margaret."

"And she has never seen her! My dear, you really are too ridiculous!"

"No, Lady Lyons; can you not see how things really are? Sir Albert knew how you lamented my want of friends and he has done this for me."

"But why, my dear, why? That's what I want to know," and Lady Lyons looked puzzled.

"Ah, that is very puzzling indeed," said Grace, gravely: and Lady Lyons, who had from the first stated that she thought she had a gown that was quite good enough, went to consult her maid upon the subject.

She found her maid in a state of ecstacy over a very handsome dark, plum-coloured silk, very fas.h.i.+onably though quietly made, bonnet and mantle to match, "With Grace's love" on the top of it.

"Oh, my dear, how lovely! I am so sorry I said that about a corner.

Corner, indeed! how kind, how very thoughtful of you! I cannot bear taking such a handsome present from you."

"You must learn to take many presents from your new daughter," said Grace, but something in her tone struck Lady Lyons.

"You have been crying," she exclaimed; "what is it, my dear? what has happened?"

"Nothing has happened, but I have a letter from Margaret, a most dear letter, and I could not help contrasting my marriage with hers, for I love Paul, Lady Lyons, and all is different."

"Very different," said Lady Lyons, and she sighed sympathetically; "and Mr. Drayton had no position, my dear; he was only a manufacturer."

"Oh, Lady Lyons, how absurd you are!" said Grace, the tears still standing in her eyes, though she laughed heartily; "fancy, in these days, talking like that! Why, all our leading spirits in Parliament and out of it are 'only' manufacturers; they have the ball at their feet now."

"My dear, you have a way of putting things I never can follow," said poor Lady Lyons; "now you are talking about a ball, it is really very puzzling."

"Well then, I beg your pardon over and over and over again," said Grace, "and I will try not to say puzzling things."

"Thank you, my dear," said Lady Lyons, very heartily, who considered this a great concession.

"Now I am to be your daughter," said the girl, with the natural wish of having a little affection and kindness shown to her just now, "you will try and like me--love me a little bit." She looked wistfully at Lady Lyons, who was touched and quite melted by this appeal.

"I suppose," she said very navely to Grace, who had turned round to leave the room, "that I also have things about me, peculiarities that require indulgence."

"You are very good," said Grace, evading the question, "and I mean to be a good wife to Paul, you believe that?"

"Oh, yes, my dear, indeed, you put that very prettily; I used to wish it was Margaret, but now I think you will like to know, that I am quite reconciled--then there is the d.u.c.h.ess, and my new dress!"

Grace laughed a little and left her.

She locked her door and once again read Margaret's affectionate, earnest letter.

After discussing the news of her marriage she said,

"Now, Grace, my darling, I want you to think, think more prayerfully than I did, about this. If you do not love Paul Lyons, do not mind the disagreeable speeches that may be made, but do not go on with it. Far better to bear angry words now than to marry without love. I would come to you, darling, at a moment's notice, and I could make a home for you somewhere, only do not do this. Had I had so solemn a warning I might have been saved."

There was more to the same point; each word, every line, showed by its intensity what an agony of pain, and shame, and misery she had herself gone through.

Hot tears fell on Grace's hands as she read the letter, and she threw herself upon her knees.

"Why should she suffer and not I?" she cried, "and I am looking forward to happiness. Then she prayed long and fervently, not for happiness and blessings but for forgiveness!"

"I shall only be really happy when I know she has forgotten," she said to herself, and she knew that this meant when Sir Albert Gerald had won her sister.

The sun shone brightly on Grace's wedding-day. She was quiet and composed. When Lady Lyons praised her for her demeanour she said gravely,

"I am losing nothing, leaving no one, and I am gaining much."

The d.u.c.h.ess kissed her, and Lady Lyons moved forward a little. She had a vague idea she might be equally honoured, but was disappointed; however, there was the register signed by the Duke and d.u.c.h.ess, _that_ would go down to posterity in connection with her son, and that was always a great deal.

As the small party left the church, they were met by Lady Penryn.

"Oh, you naughty girl!" she said, playfully. "You nice thing! where have you been all this time? Does she not look sweet?" appealing to the d.u.c.h.ess, who, pa.s.sing on, took no notice of her.

She met with a cold reception from even Lady Lyons; but she was not to be daunted; laying a detaining hand on Grace's arm she said--

"The right thing for friends to know each other; the d.u.c.h.ess, my dear, introduce me."

"Let me introduce Mr. Lyons," said Grace, with much composure, and pa.s.sed on to the carriage with Paul.

The discomfited lady received no comfort from her husband.

"If I had only known she was that sort of girl," she said, bitterly; "I always thought she was a n.o.body, and the d.u.c.h.ess gave her away!"