Then dry your eyes, and dress your beautiful hair a little better than _that;_ for he dines with me to-day!" Who so bright and happy now as Bella Bruce?
The dreaded aunt did not stop there.

She held that after the peep into real life Bella Bruce had obtained, for want of a mother's vigilance, she ought to be a wife as soon as possible.

So she gave Sir Charles a hint that Baden was a very good place to be married in; and from that moment Sir Charles gave Bella and her father no rest till they consented.
Little did Richard Bassett, in England, dream what was going on at Baden.

He now surveyed the chimneys of Huntercombe Hall with resignation, and even with growing complacency, as chimneys that would one day be his, since their owner would not be in a hurry to love again.

He shot Sir Charles's pheasants whenever they strayed into his hedgerows, and he lived moderately and studied health.