I made Nan cry
too, and we both came down to breakfast with such mournful faces that
my mother chid me sharply for making myself such a fright.
Then she took me away to the still-room, and set me for an hour to
make orange cakes, while she gave orders for the great dinner that we
were to give that day, I knew only too well for whose sake; and if I
had only known which orange cake was for my betrothed, would not it
have been a bitter one! By and by my mother carried me off to be
dressed. She never trusted the tiring-woman to put the finishing
touches with those clumsy English fingers; and, besides, she bathed
my swollen eyelids with essences, and made me rub my pale cheeks with
a scarlet ribbon, speaking to me so sharply that I should not have
dared to shed another tear.
When I was ready, all in white, and she, most stately in blue velvet
and gold, I followed her down the stairs to the grand parlour, where
stood my father, with my brothers and one or two persons in black,
who I found were a notary and his clerk, and there was a table before
them with papers, parchment, a standish, and pens. I believe if it
had been a block, and I had had to lay my head on it, like poor Lady
Jane Grey, I could not have been much more frightened.
There was a sound of wheels, and presently the gentleman usher came
forward, announcing the Most Noble the Marquis de Nidemerle, and the
Lord Viscount of Bellaise.
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