Chapter XXIV.
It was the custom of the Arleighs to spend their honeymoon at home; they
had never fallen into the habit of making themselves uncomfortable
abroad. The proper place, they considered, for a man to take his young
wife to was home; the first Lord Arleigh had done so, and each lord had
followed this sensible example. Norman, Lord Arleigh, had not dreamed of
making any change. True, he had planned with his fair young bride that
when the autumn month had passed away they would go abroad, and not
spend the winter in cold, foggy England. They had talked of the cities
they would visit--and Madaline's sweet eyes had grown brighter with
happy thoughts. But that was not to be yet; they were to go home first,
and when they had learned something of what home-life would be together,
then they could go abroad.
Lady Peters went back to Verdun Royal on the same morning; her task
ended with the marriage. She took back with her innumerable messages for
the duchess. As she stood at the carriage-door, she--so little given to
demonstration--took the young wife into her arms.
"Good-by, Madaline--or I should say now, Lady Arleigh--good-by, and may
Heaven bless you! I did not love you at first, my dear, and I thought my
old friend was doing a foolish thing; but now I love you with all my
heart; you are so fair and wise, so sweet and pure, that in making you
his wife he has chosen more judiciously than if he had married the
daughter of a noble house.
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