Kate and Alice, as they drew near to their journey's end, were both a little flurried, and I cannot but own that there was cause for nervousness. Kate Vavasor was to meet Mr. Grey for the first time. Mr. Grey was now staying at Matching and was to remain there until a week of his marriage. He was then to return to Cambridgeshire for a day or two, and after that was to become a guest at the rector's house at Matching the evening before the ceremony. "Why not let him come here at once?" Lady Glencora had said to her husband. "It is such nonsense, you know." But Mr. Palliser would not hear of it. Mr. Palliser, though a Radical in public life, would not for worlds transgress the social laws of his ancestors; and so the matter was settled. Kate on this very day of her arrival at Matching would thus see Mr. Grey for the first time, and she could not but feel that she had been the means of doing Mr. Grey much injury. She had moreover something,--not much indeed, but still something,--of that feeling which made the Pallisers terrible to the imagination, because of their rank and wealth. She was a little afraid of the Pallisers, but of Mr. Grey she was very much afraid. And Alice also was not at her ease. She would fain have prevented so very quick a marriage had she not felt that now,--after all the trouble that she had caused,--there was nothing left for her but to do as others wished. When a day had been named she had hardly dared to demur, and had allowed Lady Glencora to settle everything as she had wished. But it was not only the suddenness of her marriage which dismayed her. Its nature and attributes were terrible to her. Both Lady Midlothian and the Marchioness of Auld Reekie were coming. When this was told to her by letter she had no means of escape. "Lady Macleod is right in nearly all that she says," Lady Glencora had written to her. "At any rate, you needn't be such a fool as to run away from your cousins, simply because they have handles to their names. You must take the thing as it comes." Lady Glencora, moreover, had settled for her the list of bridesmaids. Alice had made a petition that she might be allowed to go through the ceremony with only one,--with none but Kate to back her. But she ought to have known that when she consented to be married at Matching,--and indeed she had had very little power of resisting that proposition,--all such questions would be decided for her. Two daughters therefore of Lady Midlothian were to act, Lady Jane and Lady Mary, and the one daughter of the Marchioness, who was also a Lady Jane, and there were to be two Miss Howards down from London,--girls who were known both to Alice and to Lady Glencora, and who were in some distant way connected with them both. A great attempt was made to induce the two Miss Pallisers to join the bevy, but they had frankly pleaded their age. "No woman should stand up as a bridesmaid," said the strong-minded Sophy, "who doesn't mean to get married if she can. Now I don't mean to get married, and I won't put myself among the young people." Lady Glencora was therefore obliged to submit to do the work with only six. But she swore that they should be very smart. She was to give all the dresses, and Mr. Palliser was to give a brooch and an armlet to each. "She is the only person in the world I want to pet, except yourself," Lady Glencora had said to her husband, and he had answered by giving her _carte blanche_ as regards expense.

Kate and Alice, as they drew near to their journey's end, were both a little flurried and nervous. Kate was to meet Mr. Grey for the first time. He was now staying at Matching and was to remain there until a week before his marriage. He would then return to Cambridgeshire for a day or two, and after that was to be a guest at the rector's house at Matching the evening before the ceremony.
"Why not let him come here at once?" Lady Glencora had said to her husband. "It is such nonsense, you know." But Mr. Palliser, though a Radical in public life, would not for worlds transgress the social laws of his ancestors.
Kate could not help feeling that she had been the means of doing Mr. Grey much injury. She was awed by the Pallisers, because of their rank and wealth; but of Mr. Grey she was very much afraid.
And Alice also was not at her ease. Both Lady Midlothian and the Marchioness of Auld Reekie were coming, and she had no means of escape.
"Lady Macleod is right in nearly all that she says," Lady Glencora had written to her. "At any rate, you needn't be such a fool as to run away from your cousins, simply because they have titles."
Lady Glencora, moreover, had settled the list of bridesmaids. Alice had asked that she might have only one - Kate. But she should have known that when she consented to be married at Matching, all such questions would be decided for her. So two daughters of Lady Midlothian were to act, Lady Jane and Lady Mary, and the daughter of the Marchioness, who was also a Lady Jane, and there were to be two Miss Howards who were distant relations. Lady Glencora swore that the bridesmaids should be very smart. She was to give all the dresses, and Mr. Palliser was to give a brooch and an armlet to each.
