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122 WILD MARGARET.
_ mother; but we haven’t our choice, and so nothing mat-
ters, Blair.” 7
‘You are the best-natured girl that ever breathed,
Madge!’ he said in a passionate whisper. ‘‘All my lifé
through I shall remember what sacrifices you made for |
me. Ishall never forget them! Never!” |
‘‘Have you made up your minds?’ asked Austin,
coming back. .
‘*Yes; it is to be Sefton,” said Madge herself.
‘Very well, then,” he answered. ‘‘ Then, all the rest
of the arrangements I can make easily.”’
-And he was as good as his word.
He went down with Blair to get the special license; he
engaged a sweet little cottage at Appleford; he saw the
parson’s clerk, and informed him of the date of the
wedding; he even went with Blair to his tailor’s to order
some clothes.
The day approached. Margaret had made her prepara-
tions. They were simple enough, wonderfully and
strangely simple, seeing that the man she was going to
marry was a viscount, and heir to one of the oldest coro-
nets in England. .
‘Don’t buy a lot of dresses, Madge,” Blair had said.
““Weshall be going to Paris and Italy after Appleford,
- and you can buy anything you want at Paris, don’t you
know.”’
She gave notice to quit to her landlady, and wrote &
Jine or two to some of her companions, She did not say
that she was going to be married, but that she was going
for a long stay in the country, and she did not add what
part. .
The morning—the wedding morning—was as bright and
even brilliant as a real summer morning in England can
_ be—when it likes; and the sun shone on the new travel-
ing dress—which was to be her weddin g dresg as well—as
bravely as if it had been white satin itself. ‘
All the way down to Sefton, Blair looked at her with
the loving, wistful admiration of a bridegroom,’ an
seemed never tired of telling her that she was all that was
beautiful and lovable. oo ,
Austin Ambrose had gone into a smoking carriage and
left them to themselves, but when the train pulled up at
Sefton he came to the door.
‘* Are we going to walk?” inquired Blair. .
‘No, there is a fly,”’ said Austin, and he led them to if
quietly and got them inside,
Blair laughed. .
‘Poor old Austin! Upon my word, I think he enjoys
-all this mystery! He’d make a first-rate conspirator,