and inconceivable parsimony. When young, her fortune was but forming, and her face was then even less attractive (if I may judge from a portrait taken at twenty) than when time had disguised it; so she was left to live to the alarming age of forty-five without an offer. At that period, however, her fortune, by dint of parsimony, having increased to a reverential amount, a certain Mr. Thomson, compassionating her state of single blessedness, "threw himself at her feet," and was, to the infinite consternation of all her living relations, accepted. The marriage of any young lady of forty-five furnishes food for scandal, but in this match there was nothing prominently absurd, indiscreet or inappropriate. Mr. Thomson was an ancient widower of respectable character and well-to-do in the world. He had been provost from time immemorial of the little burgh in which he resided, and was therefore happily distinguished from the innumerable tribe of Thomsons by his title of honor. Like Macbeth, "he had no children," and considered himself to stand in need of a wife to warm his slippers when "fallen into the sere and yellow leaf." But Death interfered with his self-indulgent perspectives. Scarcely was the honeymoon over, with all its indescribable annoyances, when, one morning after breakfast, as Provost Thomson was standing with his back to the fire, he stopped abruptly in the midst of a laugh at one of the quaint jokes for which he was famous, and, sitting down in his chair, gave a groan and expired. Apoplexy was the cause assigned for this appalling event. My poor aunt was exemplary as a widow, with her tears and her crape, even for a longer period than the rules of society de mand. Uninstructed by the frightful termination of her connection, the infatuated creature continued to hug her treasures, and even to add to their accumulation with tenfold voracity. The property which the will of the provost left her only whetted her appetite for more, and by the time she had reached her sixtieth and I my twenty-fifth year her fortune was calculated to exceed half a plum, or, in more figurative language, fifty thousand pounds. If there was any one toward whom she entertained a kindness, it was my own ungrateful self. I was, in fact, her factotum; for from my fifteenth year, being no penman herself, she entrusted me with drawing out her receipts for rental. For this purpose I regularly spent a day or two with her every Whitsunday and Martinmas, and in return for my attentions I regularly received from her (mirabile dictu !) a five-pound note. This was the only pecuniary enormity of which she was guilty during the year, and, to do her justice, she gave it, I believe, out of a habitual regard for me, while she would inwardly soothe her outraged parsimony by the reflection that no man of business would do what I did half so cheap. On the faith of her gift many a sanguine young man would have anticipated the heirship of all her property, but I confess I never was so preposterous in my expectations, for I felt too distinctly that I was born with the wooden spoon in my mouth. Independently of this, I knew she read the Missionary Magazine and spoke occasionally with an alarming interest of the New Zealanders; so that, if ever she had the fortitude to make a will, the cannibals of the South Sea Islands would in all probability be the favored few. Her health, besides, was good, her hold of the was too appalling to be resisted by mortal miser. The enormity would paralyze her en world tenacious; so that, even if I did entertain any hopes of success, the day was too distant to interest me much. At allergies and leave her helpless in my hands. events, no future prospect could relieve my present difficulties or put it in my power to consummate my own and Arabella's bliss. A bold stroke was necessary" a bold stroke for a wife"-and the necessity suggested one. Insane as it may appear, I absolutely resolved to ask from my aunt, when I went in May to draw out her Whitsunday receipts, the loan, (believe me) of a thousand pounds, and upon the success of that request I relied when I proposed the first of June to my dear Arabella as our day of marriage. This resolution of attacking my aunt I did not come to without severe reflection. I procured a copy of the Eccentric Biography and carefully studied the lives of all the misers therein contained, so that I might inform myself as to their weak or assailable points, bnt I found them all cased in triple steel-no crevice in their iron mail through which a spear could be insinuated, no opening through which their heart could be touched. They were not even like the alligator, vulnerable in the belly; neither puddings nor praise affected them. The only way in which they could be attacked with any prospect of success was by a coup-de-main. Old Elwes, I discovered, though he would not part with a penny to save his most miserable soul, sometimes gave thousands in loan on trifling securities. Upon that hint I spake." I saw the absurdity of attacking the "pennywise" feelings of my aunt, and resolved to rest my chance of success on her "pounds foolish." A small sum would, I felt, rouse all her customary power of resistance, but the demand of a thousand pounds sterling It would be an appeal for which her imagination had never, in its most daring flights, prepared, and she would sink submissive under it, overwhelmed by its boldness and grandeur. Not, I confess, that I anticipated an entire acquiescence in the extent of my demand, but to ask a thousand, I calculated, would secure at least five hundred: by aiming at the stars I would reach the clouds. If she succeeded in reducing my request tofive hundred, or, still better, to four hundred and ninety-nine, she would lose sight of everything else in self-congratulation at her adroitness in mitigating the calamity. It was no part of my plan to "go about the bush" in the matter; that would have alarmed her and put her on her guard. My object was to attack her object was to attack her openly and unexpectedly, for any other method would have argued a misgiving on my part and infused her with courage to resist. Accordingly, I had no sooner reached Cockleshell Hall and gone through the usual congratulations than I prepared to open my attack. My aunt speedily gave me an opportunity. "My dear nephew," she said, with her usual emphatic monosyllables, "it is so fortunate that Whitsunday happens at this time, and that you have come a day sooner than usual; for do you know I have got two ladies staying with me who are dying for a gallant?" "Indeed! Then I am fortunate in more ways than one, for I was just remarking to myself as I came up the avenue--which, by the bye, I see you have greatly improved— that it was as well that I required to visit of writing you by post for the loan of a thousand pounds, of which I happen to stand at present in need." you at this time, as it saved me the trouble | husband was taken from me. Think, John, of only twenty-eight days married!" Here she took out her handkerchief. "We had just got all the garavidging and expense of the daft-days over, and I was remarking that the veal pie might hae been better hained and served langer as a decency for our breakfasttable, when the poor dear provost, who was standing joking with his back to the chimney and the tails of his coat in his arms, gied a sudden jerk into the elbow-chair, and before I could turn round was a corpse. Never married woman was tried like me." I said this in as indifferent a matter-ofcourse manner as I could assume, although I believe my voice did falter a little; for I thought of poor Arabella. But the manner of speaking is not so important as the matter, notwithstanding all that elocutionists may say. A thousand pounds is no trifle, pronounce it as you will. It made my aunt gasp as if I had pitched a tub of water in her face, or as if I had placed her in an elerated shower-bath with a thousand holes in its drainer. Here she fell into appropriate sobs, which I did not dislike; for women are said to be "A thousand pounds! You're surely de- most accessible when they have the tear in mented, John." their eye. "Indeed, aunt, if it would not be rather encroaching on your goodness, two thousand would be more convenient for me than one. But a young man is the better of being stinted a little when beginning the world." "Two thousand! Beginning the world, John! Have you not begun yet?" "Now, aunt, that is too bad! You cannot but know what it is to begin the world. Would you have me to believe that you never were so foolish yourself as to marry?" "Do not distress yourself, my dear aunt," I said, "about that sad affair. You proved during your short wedlock, I have reason to know, all that a husband could wish, and let it be a balsam to your grief that it is not embittered by self-reproach. As to my own. marriage, I have only to pray-" "John, John, you speak as if you had completed all your arrangements and had only to send for the minister. What madness is this! And who is ness is this! And who is your wife-to-be?" "The unfortunate lady whom I have selected as my victim, and who is so far lost to herself as to approve of my choice, is irreproachable in character and descent, unequalled in beauty and almost as poor as myself." 'Well, well, if you and she choose to make beggars of yourselves, I leave you to your own delusions. It is no concern of mine." How, my dear aunt? Do you mean to say that you will so far disoblige me as refuse to grant my small request?" "Small request'! The boy's in a creel! You imagine, surely, that I am wallowing in wealth." "Far from it. I know in these hard times you have come to many losses and must have enough ado to make the ends meet. Still, I am presumptive enough to hope that you will make a struggle to oblige an old friend-the son of your only brother, William, who was your own little Billy when a child, and whom the hungry sea devoured in his prime of manhood." Here were two hits-one on the side of her parsimony, and the other on the side of her affections. Like all wealthy misers, she was very anxious to be considered poor and rejoiced to be condoled with on her "losses." She, besides, entertained a deep regard for the memory of my father, who was shipwrecked on his way from Quebec, whither he had gone to purchase timber. He was her only brother, and, being six years younger than herself, had secured the affection of her girlhood before her heart got hardened and polluted by care and avarice. Deeply as she seemed to mourn the loss of her poor dear provost," that was but the mockery of woe compared to the untold tenderness with which she ever reverted to my poor father's fate. The name of the one was a mere signal for her to display the widow's flag of distress; the name of the other was connected with all her sweetest and holiest emotions, for it renewed in the silver light of memory the young days of her life, when she used to toss her little brother in her arms or roll with him in boisterous glee among the grassy knowes. John," she said, after a pause, “you must be conscious that I have ever taken. a deep interest in your welfare for your own sake, and still more for the sake of him-my poor brother-who sleeps at the bottom of the Atlantic Sea. But I am shocked, John-really shocked-at the extravagance of your demand, and wonder any young man of discretion like you should be so absurd as to think of marriage before you have established yourself in the world. See how I did in the matter. I waited till—” "Oh, aunt, aunt!" interrupted I, delighted at the turn matters were taking; for if the woman who deliberates is lost, so also is the woman who begins to "argufy "—“ oh, aunt, do not, I beseech you, balance my conduct with your own, for, though it were a thousand times more blameless, it would never come up to your standard. I am but a poor ever-blundering, ever-resolving fool that can lay claim to no quality beyond good intention; you, on the other hand, have led a life of unswerving virtue and are guiltless even of the slightest impropriety." "If that be your opinion, it became you certainly to seek my counsel before you involved yourself in so important a matter as matrimony. And indeed, John, to tell you the truth, circumstances have led me within. these two days to think of the very subject; for there are at present, as I informed you, two ladies staying with me, one of whom has so interested me by her excellent qualities that it has more than once crossed my mind she would make a fortunate match for you if your circumstances permitted." "Alas, aunt! all people see not with the same eyes, and I, at all events, am irrevocably engaged." "E'en drink, then, as ye brewed. Since you can do without my advice, you can do without my money. the lustre of her personal possessions, her pearly teeth and diamond eyes.' 'It is too much your habit, John, to speak "Are you not getting rather unreasonable, slightingly of serious matters. These qualMrs. Thomson?" ities I hold not the value of a pin's point. "Are you not getting excessively imper- unless they are accompanied by the three tinent, Master John Brown?" "Nay, nay let us not quarrel about a trifle. You surely would allow me some degree of suffrage in a matter so personally interesting as the choice of a wife?" "I wish to meddle with no man's affairs, but for the sake of him-poor William, your father—I cannot but take an interest in your welfare; and if you had made a reasonable match with a young lady of whom I could approve, I will not promise but I might have helped you a little until your business were established, with the understanding that I would receive a legal percentage for what I might advance." "Then, my dear aunt, I feel assured you have but to see my choice to be pleased with her. virtue-" Such beauty, wit, "Pooh! I doubt she is some low person, would not insist on these things. Is Has she any money, That is what I wish or you to know." "Her family is irreproachable, for her father can trace his genealogy as far back as the days of George III., and none of them ever suffered under the hands of the hangman. As to her wealth, she is possessed, I am happy to say, of a great many properties she has a well-furnished memory, an excellently-cultivated understanding, a superb imagination, a brilliant wit and an unbounded store of affection, not to mention indispensable p's to the character of a good wife-prudence, piety and property." "And is your favorite up stairs possessed of these qualifications? Tell me, aunt, who is she?" "The lady up stairs is a comparative stranger to me, but I am mightily pleased by what I have seen of her. Your old acquaintance Mrs. Smith of Berwick brought her. She is a Miss Farquhar, and belongs herself, I believe, to that quarter, although Mrs. Smith tells me she has some prospects of finally settling in your own town of Glasgow." "A glass of water, if you please. Tush! I am quite well, aunt. A mere momentary qualm. And now I have to reproach you as well as myself for leaving the ladies so long to themselves by our idle chat on a subject which can be talked over again. We must, for very decency, go up stairs. Please introduce me: it is cruel to delay another moment." As my aunt ushered me into the room with the formal explanation of "Mr. Brown, my nephew, from Glasgow," Arabella, who was sitting at a work-table with Mrs. Smith, suddenly started, and a deep blush suffused her neck and forehead. While bowing I contrived to place my finger on my mouth, to indicate I wished no recognition. Mrs. Smith seemed to understand this intuitively, for, although it was through her I had originally become acquainted with Arabella, she spoke of us as entire strangers. Arabella herself |