Hundreds of times I have seen them sitting on the lawn, while Norman and I played together.

Then they were always talking about the time we should be married.

'Philippa will make a beautiful Lady Arleigh,' his mother used to say.

'Norman, go and play with your little wife,' she would add; and with all the gravity of a grown courtier, he would bow before me and call me his little wife." "But you were children then, and it was perhaps all childish folly." "It was nothing of the kind," said the heiress, angrily.

"I remember well that, when I was presented, my mother said to me, 'Philippa, you are sure to be very much admired; but remember, I consider you engaged to Norman.