After she had taken her early tea in the morning, Emily Fox-Seton lay upon her pillows and gazed out upon the tree-branches near her window, in a state of bliss.

She was tired, but happy.

How well everything had "gone off"! How pleased Lady Maria had been, and how kind of Lord Walderhurst to ask the villagers to give three cheers for herself! She had never dreamed of such a thing.

It was the kind of attention not usually offered to her.

She smiled her childlike smile and blushed at the memory of it.