She brought the shining sun with her, and when he set, he left them with the promise of a splendid to-morrow--a promise amply redeemed when the next day dawned.

Indeed, the sunshine was so brilliant, the garden so gay and sweet, the lawn so green and firm, the avenues so shady and full of wandering songs, that it was resolved to hold the preliminary reception out of doors.

Ethel and Ruth were to receive on the lawn, and at the open hall door the Squire would wait to welcome his guests.
Soon after five o'clock there was a brilliant crowd wandering and resting in the pleasant spaces; and Ethel, wearing a diaphanously white robe and carrying a rush basket full of white carnations, was moving among them distributing the flowers.

She was thus the center of a little laughing, bantering group when the Nicholas Rawdon party arrived.
Nicholas remained with the Squire, Mrs.Rawdon and the young men went toward Ethel.

Mrs.Rawdon made a very handsome appearance--"an aristocratic Britannia in white liberty silk and old lace," whispered Ruth, and Ethel looked up quickly, to meet her merry eyes full of some unexplained triumph.