COLONEL TREVELYAN'S MARRIAGE. ting the dignity of his position, during the ceremony, and not one bit of the long service was spared to the kneeling couple. Geraldine's face was hidden by her thick veil; but not a sob or tear escaped from her, although her mother and sisters wept audibly, and mademoiselle in true foreign fashion was equally overcome. When the solemn words, "Those whom God hath joined together let not man put asunder," sounded in her ears, a long tremor shook her childish frame; and when for one moment I caught sight of her face, it had a far-away, dreamy look I could not bear to see. The school-children threw flowers in their path as the handsome couple walked slowly to the carriage which stood waiting for them, Colonel Trevelyan's face wearing a smile of triumph and satisfaction, which could not make it tender, though it took off much of its haughtiness; and Geraldine, still dreamy and unconscious, leaning lightly on his arm, not as if it were to be her stay for life, but looking very grave for her. And when her favorite scholars gazed at her with shy admiration depicted on their faces, no answering smile assured them they were recognized, no gleam of welcome lit her eyes as a murmured "God bless you!" passed from lip to lip, and was taken up by many voices, until a deafening cheer as they stepped into the carriage drowned any other demonstrations. The breakfast passed off as breakfasts usually do on these occasions. The bride was told to appear, and, as she had been told to do other things, 277 She and had obeyed, she did this. sat at the long table between her father and Colonel Trevelyan in the approved orthodox fashion; but so painful was the expression on her face, that almost all its girlish beauty had faded for the time, so prematurely old and anxious did she look. I had seen brides nervous, conscious, flurried, tearful. Geraldine was none of these;. she was unnaturally quiet, but she looked scared, and the same dreamy, far-away gaze, which I had noticed in church, never left her face. She gave one the impression of being the guest at a wedding, not that this was her own, or could personally interest her much; in short, she was like a sleep-walker, till the parting came. Then she clung for a few seconds to her father in a manner agonizing to witness-no tears, no words-and walked to the carriage, her face wan and white, and set as it might be in death, but as nothing young should ever look in life--all its youth, all its glowing beauty, withered for the time. "I can't make out this marriage," remarked Lord Lionel Germaine, who had acted as Colonel Trevelyan's best man, conversing with his intimate friend, Mr. Darrell, on the evening of the wedding-day, as they were smoking the pipe of peace over a comfortable fire. "I was told she was a stunner, but I'll be shot if I see it—features good enough; but a man don't want a statue for a wife; and Trevelyan above all men, lucky dog! might have had any one for the asking." And Lord Lionel heaved a sigh; for he was not indifferent to the-perhaps her matronly silk gown, ber. Geraldine was half-lying on a couch, tired with her long journey, in a listless attitude, which looked less like fatigue than weariness of spirit; and you saw at a glance that she was altered, not physically, except, perhaps, for the better, for she was in great beauty that evening, and her husband's admiration was unchecked by any feeling except the pleasing one that, as time matured her charms, she would be one of the loveliest women in England, where beauty is not rare. Yet there was an alteration; you would have been puzzled to say where which fell in heavy folds round her girlish form, made it look shrunk from its Hebe beauty, or the gleaming jewels which rested on her dazzling neck and arms were so unfamiliar as to look out of place there. I cannot say; there was a change, and one a fond mother would have hardly cared to see upon a bride of only a month's standing-the expression was so constrained, not sad, the eyes so dreamy, and the whole air so listless and unstrung. "I must be going, love," Colonel Trevelyan said. "Mind you don't sit up for me; not that you look the least tired, my beautiful darling, but that you may do honor to my taste to-morrow, when I imagine you will be besieged by visitors. Don't even take the trouble to open any of these notes. I will show you to-morrow what is to be done with them, and how they can be answered. Go to bed at once, like a darling, and have your beauty's sleep while you can; for precious little you will get of it, once they find out we are in London. Not that I mean to have my little girl turned into a rake at once, and in her first season too." And the colonel bent down and very tenderly kissed first the forehead and then the lips of his child-wife. Geraldine suffered the caress, but she did not return it-she never did. Her eyes were looking past him all the time with the same dreamy expression they had worn on the day of her marriage. Colonel Trevelyan saw the look, but did not interpret it aright; THE LONDON HOME. he came back hastily when he had reached the door. "I am sorry to go," he said, with real feeling, "but it is an important night, and I promised I would be there; to-morrow we will do our shopping together early, and you shall tell me if any thing is to be altered in your boudoir, and if you are really satisfied with the house and what has been done to it, after you have seen it by daylight. Nothing can be easier than to make any alteration which strikes you. I wish I had seen to the decorations more myself; but I was so busy before our marriage; I was obliged to be so much at Trevelyanthat I do think will please you." And again he bent down and kissed her. "It is all beautiful, only too good for me," Geraldine said, as she halfraised herself from her reclining position; and you started at the sound of the voice, which at seventeen sounded so far away, and had lost all the high blithe notes which I remembered so well. "It is all beautiful," she repeated emphatically, and her face flushed with her earnestness, "and I am so much obliged to you for making such a pretty home for me, and thinking so much of whether I should like it or not." Colonel Trevelyan bent down again, and this time he kissed her hand; there was the faintest shade of disappointment on his face, which for a moment had lost all haughtiness: it looked tender, almost compassionate, as he gazed on the young fair face lifted to his. 29 Ger The moment he was gone, Geraldine rose; there was no fatigue or languor in her movements now, as she walked up and down the long drawing-rooms in Grosvenor Square-going to the tables, touching the pretty things on them, sitting down first on one chair, then on another, restlessly pacing up and down again, then with pardonable vanity surveying herself in the long pier-glass which reflected her from head to foot. She paused at last before a life-sized picture of Colonel Trevelyan as a boy of five or six years old. It was an oil-picture, only the head and shoulders, but beautifully painted, with a certain likeness still in the bold, flashing, dark eyes, the dauntless, laughing face—there was the glorious coloring, more delicate in that early youth than it could be now. aldine paused before the picture of her husband, and gazed at it attentively for some time; but a by-stander would certainly not have been prepared for the effect it had upon her. Suddenly clasping her hands above her head, she threw herself again upon the cushions she had so lately quitted, and burst into a fit of crying, sad to see at any age, but how sad at hers! Convulsive sobs shook her childish frame, the tears coursed like rain through her taper fingers; but the weeping was not the agony it can become in later years, neither did it sound like that produced by physical fatigue or mental excitement. Geraldine was not the least delicate, she did not know what nerves meant, and never in her short life could she remember giving way to any thing like this before. Her fair beauty was not improved by | even he might have been roused to the hope of winning the love which should have been his, the pure girlish love of that confiding spirit; it might have hallowed the passion which he then felt for his beautiful young wife, and taught him how to love her with a better and more enduring affection. But he started away at the first word; for prayer was little in his thoughts or on his lips. the pastime, and it was lucky Colonel Trevelyan was not by to mark the blurred and tear-swollen features which met Geraldine's view as the long glass again reflected a very different face from the one which had flashed back its brilliant beauty upon her one short half-hour ago. Fearing that the servants might perceive the change, Geraldine rang the bell, and hastily ascending the staircase, reached her own luxurious dressing-room ere the gouty old butler and solemn footmen had got half-way up to the drawing-room floor. "Too beautiful, too good for me!" she murmured to herself, as, the doors all open, she saw the fairy-like vista of boudoir on one side, and bedroom and dressing-room on the other. "If I could only love him!" A choking sensation in her throat warned her of a relapse, and, wisely ringing for her maid, she hastily exchanged her heavy silk gown for a soft, flowing white one, far more suited to her youthful beauty; and not much later, very wearily, like a child as she was, she laid her aching head upon the snowy pillows, and was soon sleeping as peacefully as if no thunder-storm had shaken her young life to its foundation. Almost as white as its resting-place was the cheek which Colonel Trevelyan, very reverentially for him, touched with his lips several hours later. He stooped down to catch the words which, stirring uneasily, she softly murmured. Their lives might have been different, could he have heard and heeded them: in those early days แ "God, teach me to love him!” Geraldine murmured remorsefully. CHAPTER IX. "In whose calm depth the beautiful and pure It was a lovely spring morning when Geraldine Trevelyan, again arrayed in bridal white, stood before the long cheval glass in her dressing-room, Colonel Trevelyan on one side, admiring her, Lady St. Clair on the other, more critical in her remarks, but pleased despite herself at the appearance of the débutante bride, whom she was to present at the drawing-room that day. IN THE QUEEN'S PRESENCE. sherry, and a great deal of breathless admiration from a long row of womenservants headed by the housekeeper, stepped into the perfectly-appointed carriage, which waited for her at the door. The impatient horses, new to the occasion, and attracting all eyes, soon bore them to the string, which was to be their destination for nearly an hour. "The handsomest couple I ever see'd in my life!" passed from lip to lip, as they were constrained to go at a foot-pace through the gaping crowd. No one could wonder at the admiration or at its fervor. Colonel Trevelyan, always striking and commanding in appearance, was still more so when in full regimentals; and Geraldine had never looked lovelier. Her face was flushed by excitement; its scared and pained expression was gone; and her youth and exquisite complexion triumphed over even the broad daylight, the uncovered shoulders, the marble-white of her heavy satin gown-heavier still from the magnificent old point-lace which is supposed to be the correct thing on such occasions. Diamonds such as are rarely seen except on dowagers old and wrinkled were blazing in her sunny hair, and making still more fair the dazzling whiteness of her neck and arms. She created a furore of admiration as they made their slow progress to the royal presence; and "Who is she?" "Where has she dropped from?" was the continual cry from those who had not the honor of Lady St. Clair's or Colonel Trevelyan's acquaintance. 31 "Introduce me to your niece, I beg of you, dear Lady St. Clair," said the Duke of Cardros, elbowing his way to them as they emerged from the presence-chamber, not having yet got to the room where they had left Colonel Trevelyan. "You never told me you were going to astonish the London world in this way, when you talked of the young lady you were going to bring out." "This lady is not my niece, my dear duke; but I am very happy to present you to my sister-in-law, Mrs. Trevelyan." Lady St. Clair watched with some malice the effect of her words, and was not disappointed. The duke's face fell considerably, and he murmured some expression rather strong for ladies' ears. Geraldine was now launched in the full swing of a London season. Dinners, balls, concerts, operas, succeeded each other without intermission, and in a manner which to the country-bred girl was fatiguing, and almost too bewildering. She did not dislike it— who at seventeen, with every thing |