“And how do you feel about this great change of fortune?  Are you still frightened, though no longer unbelieving?”

“No, indeed!” replied Nora, glancing up at the little looking-glass that hung immediately opposite to her wheel; “if I have pleased Herman, who is so fastidious, it is not likely that.  I should disgust others.  And mind this, too:  I pleased Herman in my homespun gown, and when I meet his friends at Brudenell Hall, I shall have all the advantages of splendid dress.  No, Hannah, I am no longer incredulous or frightened.  And if ever, when sitting at the head of his table when there is a dinner party, my heart should begin to fail me, I will say to myself:  ’I pleased Herman—­the noblest of you all,’ and then I know my courage will return.  But, Hannah, won’t people be astonished when they find out that I, poor Nora Worth, am really and truly Mrs. Herman Brudenell!  What will they say?  What will old Mrs. Jones say?  And oh! what will the Miss Mervins say?  I should like to see their faces when they hear it! for you know it is reported that Colonel Mervin is to marry Miss Brudenell, and that the two Miss Mervins are secretly pulling caps who shall take Herman!  Poor young ladies! won’t they be dumfounded when they find out that poor Nora Worth has had him all this time!  I wonder how long it will take them to get over the mortification, and also whether they will call to see me.  Do you think they will, Hannah?”

“I do not know, my dear.  The Mervins hold their heads very high,” replied the sober elder sister.

“Do they!  Well, I fancy they have not much right to hold their heads much higher than the Brudenells of Brudenell Hall hold theirs.  Hannah, do you happen to know who our first ancestor was?”

“Adam, my dear, I believe.’’

“Nonsense, Hannah; I do not mean the first father of all mankind—­I mean the head of our house.”

“Our house?  Indeed, my dear, I don’t even know who our grandfather was.”

“Fudge, Hannah, I am not talking of the Worths, who of course have no history.  I am talking of our family—­the Brudenells!”

“Oh!” said Hannah dryly.

“And now do you know who our first ancestor was?”

“Yes; some Norman filibuster who came over to England with William the Conqueror, I suppose.  I believe from all that I have heard, that to have been the origin of most of the noble English families and old Maryland ones.”

“No, you don’t, neither.  Herman says our family is much older than the Conquest.  They were a noble race of Saxon chiefs that held large sway in England from the time of the first invasion of the Saxons to that of the Norman Conquest; at which period a certain Wolfbold waged such successful war against the invader and held out so long and fought so furiously as to have received the surname of ‘Bred-in-hell!’”

“Humph! do you call that an honor, or him a respectable ancestor?”