of course i ve to obey him more than you now mrs sighed all i have to say is that you d better get your husband to join you as soon as possible she remarked to go on playing the maiden like this � i m ashamed to see you she wrote instantly to i wash my hands of the whole matter as between you two though i should advise you to openly join each other as soon as you can � if you wish to avoid scandal he came though not till the promised title had been granted and he could call my lady people said in after years that she and her husband were very happy however that may be they had a numerous family and she became in due course first of as he had foretold the little white frock in which she had been married to him at the tender age of twelve was carefully preserved among the relics at king s court where it may still be seen by the curious � a pathetic testimony to the small count taken of the happiness of an innocent child in the social of those days which might have led but did not lead to great a group of noble when the earl died wrote him an in which she described him as the best of husbands fathers and friends and called herself his widow such is woman or rather not to give offence by so sweeping an assertion such was it was at a meeting of one of the field and clubs that the foregoing story partly told partly read from a manuscript was made to do duty for the papers on ox horns and such like that usually occupied the more serious attention of the members this club was of an and character to a degree indeed remarkable for the part of england in which it had its being � dear delightful whose are even now only just beginning to feel the shaking of the new and strange spirit without like that which entered the lonely valley of s vision and made the dry bones move where the honest clerks and people still praise the lord with one voice for his best of all possible worlds the present meeting which was to extend over two days had opened its proceedings at the museum of the town whose buildings and were to be visited by the members lunch had ended and the afternoon excursion had been about to be undertaken when the rain came down in an obstinate which revealed no sign of as the members waited they grew chilly although it was only autumn and a fire was lighted s a group of noble which threw a cheerful shine upon the coats of mail weapons and animated the and while the dead eyes of the stuffed birds � those never absent in such though murdered to out of doors � flashed as they had flashed to the rising sun above the neighbouring on the fatal morning when the was pulled which ended their little flight it was then that the historian produced his manuscript which he had prepared he said with a view to publication his delivery of the story having concluded as the speaker expressed his hope that the of the weather and the of more scientific papers would excuse any in his subject several members observed that a storm bound club could not presume to be and they were all very much obliged to him for such a curious chapter from the domestic histories of the county the president looked gloomily from the window at the descending rain and broke a short silence by saying that though the club had met there seemed little probability of its being able to visit the objects of interest set down among the the observed that they had at least a roof over their heads and they had also a second day before them a sentimental member leaning back in his chair declared that he was in no hurry to go out and that nothing would please him so much as another county story with or without manuscript the colonel added that the subject should be a lady a group of noble like the former to which a gentleman known as the spark said hear hear though these had spoken in jest a rural dean who was present observed that there was no lack of materials many indeed were the legends and traditions of gentle and noble renowned in times past in that part of england whose actions and passions were now but for men s memories buried under the brief inscription on a tomb or an entry of dates in a dry another member an old surgeon a somewhat grim though personage was quite of the speaker s opinion and felt quite sure that the memory of the reverend gentleman must abound with such curious tales of fair of their loves and hates their joys and their misfortunes their beauty and their fate the parson a trifle confused retorted that their friend the surgeon the son of a surgeon seemed to him as a man who had seen much and heard more during the long course of his own and his father s practice the member of all others most likely to be acquainted with such lore the the colonel the historian the the the two the gentleman the sentimental member the crimson the quiet gentleman the man of family the spark and several others quite agreed and begged that he would recall something of the kind the old surgeon said that though a meeting of the mid field and club was the last place at which he should have expected to be called upon in this way he had no objection and the parson said he would a group of noble come next the surgeon then reflected and decided to relate the history of a lady 