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was now to be done for a sovereign of the evening, to wind up their literary commonwealth and leave them free to resolve on new plans and other pastimes for Christmas week. Changes, however, had taken place among the happy guests of Derley Manor, since they assembled together in its old halls towards the close of November. It was not that every tree was long since leafless, and every pleasant glade and rambling footpath buried beneath the protracted snows of an unusually severe winter; though the changes of the season had not been without their effects on Mr. and Mrs. Howard's guests. One result that had especially flowed from them was, that the whole party had been almost exclusively confined to in-door pleasures, and consequently had been much more thrown together than they needed to have been, had the weather admitted of such long rambles as they had been tempted to take when they first arrived at the old mansion.

Whether this forced confinement to such straitened limits, and the necessity of seeking enjoyment exclusively in one another's society, had anything to do with the events that followed, we shall not attempt to decide. Certain it is, that when, on the second evening of these poetic pastimes at Derley Mano

Miss Caroline Howard signalized her abdication of the Holly Crown by placing it on the head of her cousin Alfred Dudley, sundry grave heads might have been seen shaking with more of curious fancy than disapprobation, and a few of the older folks in quiet corners might have been observed to smile, as though they knew a great deal more than they chose at present to tell. What all these sagacious nods and smiles exactly meant began after a while to be surmised by the dullest or most thoughtless of the party. Every now and then some romping young Miss or Master, or even occasionally their more staid and elderly companions, would stumble unexpectedly on the two cousins in some quiet corner of the house, occasioning thereby an amount of blushing awkwardness, and hesitating explanation, which often seemed to be a great deal more than the occasion required. Even in the Library, of an evening, it was a chance that seemed very frequently occuring for both of them to get seated somehow in the same deep window recess, or other retired corner, and it was even hinted by one roguish young romp of fifteen that they had been seen to steal a kiss when nobody was supposed to be looking that way. Leaving, however, all surmises and speculations on disputed points out of the

question, certain it is that long before Christmas Eve arrived it had become an undoubted case of pure loveattachment between the cousins; and friends being agreeable, and parents consenting, it had been decided, that, as Colonel Howard looked forward to the probability of being speedily recalled to active duties, the young couple should be married on Christmas day, by the good old Rector, at the Parish Church of Ampthill.

All was excitement, accordingly, at Derley Manor. Though the same evening pastimes as we have recorded, had been nightly renewed in the Library, many other matters had latterly divided the attention and pre-occupied the thoughts of the assembled friends. Dresses too had to be made, and fashions to be discussed. The bridesmaids considered their wreaths, lace, and veils, as all matters scarcely more essential to the approaching bridal ceremony than the clergyman's official services, or, perhaps, even than the presence of the bride herself. Much, therefore, had to be thought, said, and most gravely discussed, in anticipation of the important event, so that latterly the evening meetings in the Library had become, to the fair members of the party at least, rather an occasion of relaxation from engrossing duties, than a period in

which their inventive powers or abilities were to be taxed for the general entertainment.

Such was the state of things at Derley Manor when the party once more assembled in the Library on Christmas Eve, and it will not greatly surprise the reader to learn, that when the first noise and bustle of discussion was over, all unanimously agreed to the proposition of Fanny Edwards, a rosy-cheeked, laughing little miss, whose turn to be Queen of the Evening had only come at last, to her great joy, on the previous night, and who now insisted-despite the rule of alternation of King and Queen-that Caroline Howard, the bride of the morrow, should be re-elected to the throne she had been the first to fill.

The expectant bridesmaids of the coming Christmasday's wedding-service, gathered round the re-elected Queen immediately, like so many maids of honour ready to wait upon her throne. The bridegroom elect came forward with an offer of his services also, but was laughingly repulsed by his cousin Emma Howard, the youngest of her sister's bridesmaids, who told him, to the great delight of the more youthful members of the Derley Commonwealth, that he must go and practice the obedience of a dutiful subject and servitor of Queen Caroline, and that it would be quite time

enough when the Rector presented Caroline Dudley

to him, for him to

take such liberties as he was

now inclined to do. The fair Queen blushed, amid her smiles, at the lively sallies of her merry young sister, and Alfred had to content himself with retreating to a dark corner, where he could watch with quiet delight, every look and word of the lovely Monarch of the Evening.

It was some little time before Caroline Howard recovered her wonted composure, and still longer before she could succeed in restoring order and subjection to her noisy subjects, who were so full of anticipations of the coming services of the morrow, that they seemed to long for some more active mode of manifesting their joyous regard for their fair Queen than the mere silent attention of dutiful subjects. Order, however, being at length restored, Queen Caroline addressed them as follows:

"When last I occupied this place of honour among you, and set the example that has guided us so pleasantly through many a winter evening around this cheerful blazing hearth, some objections, I remember, were started by several of my younger subjects, to the choice which I made of our good old poets Spenser, Sidney, and Raleigh. These objections were

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