'I am the dove coming back to the ark.

I am the bearer of happy tidings.

Lady Maulevrier consents to your acquiring the legal right to make each other miserable for the rest of your lives.' 'God bless you, Maulevrier,' said Hammond, clasping him by the hand.
'Only as this sister of mine is hardly out of the nursery you will have to wait for her at least a year.

So says the dowager, whose word is like the law of the Modes and Persians, and altereth not.' 'I would wait for her twice seven years, as Jacob waited, and toil for her, as Jacob toiled,' answered Hammond, 'but I should like to call her my own to-morrow, if it were possible.' Nothing could be happier or gayer than the tea-drinking in Lady Maulevrier's room on the following afternoon.

Her ladyship having once given way upon a point knew how to make her concession gracefully.