“It is time that I were attending to my own apparelling, which, in looking at thee, I quite forgot,” said the widow, rising, and leaving the apartment.

The marriage, which took place at the house of the Governor, was private, and attended only by some of the principal personages of the colony and their families.  Besides the Knight of the Golden Melice, Sir Richard Saltonstall, who was to sail in the same ship with the young people, came with his two daughters, as did also Master Increase Nowell, and Master Bradstreet.  No minister was present, the order resenting, it may be, in a quiet way, an invasion of their prerogative, which excluded them from business of this sort; but in the solemn and graceful manner in which the accomplished Winthrop performed the ceremony, no one noticed any deficiency, not even Eveline herself, who, indeed, was thinking of other matters.  Winthrop concluded his part with a little speech, in which he reminded the young couple of the new duties they had assumed, and of the loving mystery whereby two souls were united into one, like two brooks, which, pouring each into the other their bright waters, flow on, inseparably joined, to the ocean of eternity.  Something he said, too, of the blessedness of a true faith, as a crowning glory, without which the world was but an unprofitable desert.

Scarcely had the congratulations which followed the sweet voice of the Governor ceased, when a stranger, an honored friend of Master Bradstreet, and who had come with him, stepped forward, and saluting Arundel by the title of the Earl of Cliffmere, informed him that he had matters of importance to communicate.

“I had waited upon you, my lord, before,” he said, “even upon the instant of my arrival, had I known where to find you; but I suspected you not under your assumed name.”

“I welcome you,” said the Earl, advancing and taking the stranger’s hand, “I welcome you, Master Hatherly, to the new world, which I this day leave, probably forever.  As for thy news, I think thou art anticipated:  I am informed by letters brought by the vessel wherein you came, that my father and eldest brother are no more, and that the coronet which I would willingly place upon their living brows, alas, is mine.  Wonderful is the drama of life.  I abandoned rank and fortune,” he added, looking with eyes swimming in love upon his wife, “to seek that without which they possessed no value.  They have pursued me across the sea, and, besides, I have obtained my dearest treasure.”

The astonished Eveline hid her face in the bosom of her husband, while tears of happiness fell fast.  Bewildered, amazed at the discovery of the rank of her lover, she knew not what to say; but amid all her confusion, prevailed triumphantly a sense of sparkling joy, of full contentment, and of radiant hope.