a physical pleasure.  But notwithstanding the certitude that never left her of the propriety of her conduct, and the equally ever-present sentiment of the happiness that awaited her, she suffered much during the next ten days, and she was frequently in tears.  Cecilia had started for St. Leonards without coming to wish her good-bye, and the cruel sneers, insinuations of all kinds against her and against Dr. Reed, which Mrs. Barton never missed an occasion of using, wounded the girl so deeply, that it was only at the rarest intervals that she left her room—­when she walked to the post with a letter, when the luncheon or dinner bell rang.  Why she should be thus persecuted, Alice was unable to determine; and why her family did not hail with delight this chance of getting rid of a plain girl, whose prospects were limited, was difficult to say; nor could the girl arrive at any notion of the pleasure or profit it might be to anyone that she should waste her life amid chaperons and gossip, instead of taking her part in the world’s work.  And yet this seemed to be her mother’s idea.  She did not hesitate to threaten that she would neither attend herself, nor allow Mr. Barton to attend the ceremony.  Alice might meet Dr. Reed at the corner of the road, and be married as best she could.  Alice appealed to her father against this decision, but she soon had to renounce the hope of obtaining any definite answer.  He had been previously told that if he attempted any interference, his supply of paints, brushes, canvases, and guitar-strings would be cut off, and, as he was at present deeply engaged on a new picture of Julius Caesar overturning the Altars of the Druids, he hesitated before the alternatives offered to him.  He spoke with much affection; he regretted that Alice could not see her way to marrying somebody whom her mother could approve!  He explained the difficulties of his position, and the necessity of his turning something out—­seeing what he really could do before the close of the year.  Alice was disappointed, and bitterly, but she bore her disappointment bravely, and she wrote to Dr. Reed, telling him what had occurred, and proposing to meet him on a certain day at the Parish Church, where Father Shannon would marry them; and, that if he refused, they would proceed to Dublin, and be married at the Registry Office.  In a way Alice would have preferred this latter course, but her good sense warned her against the uselessness of offering any too violent opposition to the opinions of the world.  And so it was arranged; and sad, weary, and wretched, Alice lingered through the last few days of the life that had always been to her one of humiliation, and which now towards its close had quieted to one of intense pain.

The Brennans had promised to meet her in the chapel, and one day, as she was sitting by her window, she saw May in all the glory of her copper hair, drive a tandem up to the door.  This girl threw the reins to the groom, and rushed to her friend.