safe."

"It will soon be over. They'll be gone on Thursday."

"What do you think of his having the impudence to tell
Cunliffe"--Cunliffe was the head keeper--"before my face, that he didn't
know anything about pheasants! 'Well, my lord, I think we've got a few
about the place,' said Cunliffe. 'Very few,' said Ongar, with a sneer.
Now, if I haven't a better head of game here than he has at Courton,
I'll eat him. But the impudence of his saying that before me!"

"Did you make him any answer?"

"'There's about enough to suit me,' I said. Then he skulked away,
knocked off his pins. I shouldn't like to be his wife; I can tell Julia
that."

"Julia is very clever," said the sister.

The day of the marriage came, and everything at Clavering was done with
much splendor. Four bridesmaids came down from London on the preceding
day; two were already staying in the house, and the two cousins came as
two more from the rectory. Julia Brabazon had never been really intimate
with Mary and Fanny Clavering, but she had known them well enough to
make it odd if she did not ask them to come to her wedding and to take a
part in the ceremony. And, moreover, she had thought of Harry and her
little romance of other days. Harry, perhaps, might be glad to know that
she had shown this courtesy to his sisters. Harry, she knew, would be
away at his school. Though she had asked him whether he meant to come to
her wedding, she had been better pleased that he should be absent. She