Many happy days passed thus with these lovers--for lovers they still
were. Marriage had for once fulfilled its real and sacred meaning--it
had set Love free from restraint, and had opened all the gateways of the
only earthly paradise human hearts shall ever know,--the paradise of
perfect union and absolute sympathy with the one thing beloved on this
side eternity.
The golden hours fled by all too rapidly,--and towards the close of
August there came an interruption to their felicity. Courtesy had
compelled Bruce-Errington and his wife to invite a few friends down to
visit them at the Manor before the glory of the summer-time was
past,--and first among the guests came Lord and Lady Winsleigh and their
bright boy, Ernest. Her ladyship's maid, Louise Renaud, of course,
accompanied her ladyship,--and Briggs was also to the fore in the
capacity of Lord Winsleigh's personal attendant. After these, George
Lorimer arrived--he had avoided the Erringtons all the season,--but he
could not very well refuse the pressing invitation now given him without
seeming churlish,--then came Beau Lovelace, for a few days only, as with
the commencement of September he would be off as usual to his villa on
the Lago di Como.
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