Sir Edmund would fain have been married immediately after his return.
Perhaps Decima would also. But Lady Verner, always given to study the
proprieties of life, considered that it would be more seemly to allow
first a few months to roll on after the death of her son's wife. So the
autumn and part of the winter were allowed to go by; and in this, the
first week of February, they were united; being favoured with weather
that might have cheated them into a belief that it was May-day.
How anxious Deerham was to get a sight of her, as the carriages
conveying the party to church drove to and fro! Lionel gave her away,
and her bride's-maids were Lady Mary Elmsley and Lucy Tempest. The story
of the long engagement between her and Edmund Hautley had electrified
Deerham; and some began to wish that they had not called her an old maid
quite so prematurely. Should it unfortunately have reached her ears, it
might tend to place them in the black books of the future Lady Hautley.
Lady Verner was rather against Jan's going to church. Lady Verner's
private opinion was--indeed it may be said her proclaimed opinion as
well as her private one--that Jan would be no ornament to a wedding
party.
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