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A WFDDING ft AR ttfaj? MFNT. A vynumi\uuAnivim 1 delicacy and reserve in the matter often tell me that I am one of the leanest young men they ever saw in their lives. When I walk the streets I am grieved by theremarks of a cer tain class of small boys who have not had proper hometraining. These remarks areof a comparative nature I being one object of comparison, and the lamp posts by which I am passing the other. If I go ten blocks without hearing anything said about "bean poles" and "living skeletons" 1 am glad. Being just six feet three in height doe not add particularly to the beauty of my appearance. Let no one suppose because I write so calmly of my leanness that I am not sensible regarding it. I am. The day I overheard a young lady say at a picnic that I looked like a section of a railroad bridge was the saddest day of my life. To overcome as far as possible the grotesque appearance of my exces sive lack of flesh, 1 always wear "heavy weight" goods, and no tailor ever secures my patronage who dees not thoroughly understand the art of "padding." I confess to a certain degree of vanity regarding my personal ap pearance and when I made the bliss ful discovery that I was about to be married I gave no little thought to the appearance I should present on an occasion, when, more than at any other time in my life, so many persons would be gazing upon me. I read books on etiquette to know if under any circumstances a man might be properly married with his overcoat and two suits of clothes on, but to my distress found that this was allowable only in cases of elope ment, and as my wife "had set ner heart on a church wedding with everybody in full dress, I gradually forced myself into the conviction that the overcoat and one suit of clothes would have to be discarded. A man of my "build"' looks posi tively and irredeemably awful in the conventional, clinging, black, light weight garments of which most wedding suits are made. "When I see such a man thus arrayed I a,m convinced that there is really some thing in the Darwinian theory. But, as it had to be so, I wastaar ried in the garments best calculated swto make my attenuation glaringly apparent. My friends were kind, however, and said nothing to cast a cloud on my happinessall but my sister Nell. She owed me a grudge dating back to the days of our child hood, and, as she put Tier arms around my neck and kissed me, he whispered in my ear: "Oh, Tom, you look awfully shoe stringy in thatsuib." A separation of four years made it possible for me to speak to Nellwhen we met again, but I sometimes fear that we can never be the dear friends we once were. After our marriage my wife and I went immediately to a far distant western city, in which we made our home. I was too poor to throw or give away my destested wedding garments, but I soon reduced them to a state of great shabbiness by wearing them under my overcoat when about my work as a reporter on a daily paper. We were not so ciety people, and I had no idea that I would ever again need a suit of that kind. One day when I went hometo dinner my wife said: "See here, Tom, it's a shame for you to bewearing that handsome $75 suitvout in that way. Don't you sup pose you could sell it and get some more suitable and cheaper garments lor every day wear?" I hear take occasion to eay that my wife is very economical as well as a practical and sensible woman. Sometimes I think she knows more than I know. I told herthat I would think about her suggestion. A wise man will never seem to come into immediate accord with the opinions of his wife. It is always best to hang back and pretend that you have a little sense of your own, even though you know that you have not. At 12 o'clock that night, as I was closingo my deskhome^ethe Ii S a Those of my friends who knew me city,and, well enough to forego all feelings of P* at th office prepa editor of my paper said "See here, Dixon that report you wrote of tbe trouble up at the Chris tabel mine was uncommonly well done, and will be talked about to morrow. I think I can get your salary raised on the strength of it. In the meantime, here's a little of something to show you that the pa per appreciates good work." As he spoke he handed me a crisp, new $50 bill. He was rich the paper Was making a great deal of money, and I felt that I was not being paid as much as I earned, so I took the money without any hesitation. Fifty dollar bills were very scarce at our house, and as I hurried home through the dark streets I fancied to myself my wife's pride and pleasure when I should tell her of my good fortune on the morrow. For perfect security I folded and refolded the bill until it was about an inch square, and tucked it down into the watch pocket of my panta loons, a pocket I had never used be fore, and one that few men, clothed going managinr we might'be first there, and our lack of festive garments less noticeable. "If it wasn't for Helen I wouldn't go at all," I said as we sat in the church, awaiting the coming of the bridal party. "I cannot endure Smythe. He thinks himself vastly superior to me, and makes me sick with his talk about fashions and 'best society' and ail that. It makes me so mad to be told, as I often am, that he looks like me. I know I'm long and lank, but he" "Sh-sh-sh!" whispered my wife "they're roming." "With such a flourishing of trum- pets," I whispered in reply., Down they came in the broad cen ter aislefive bridesmaids with gor geous pink and lavender and blue and cream and cardinal trains five "best men" in ugly black garments, and, last of all. Helen, with yards and yards of white satin and tulle and lace: and Smythe inI clutched at my wife's arm and almost shouted in her ear: "He has on my wedding suit, as at an. eve mlnda theirri Before occasions, Ihur- *ondngc ^as su greakteP hastilya thaf bye fire ir a distantawakenedf part th on donning an oldsuit good WF* fire, which happened to be of unusual magnitude. We got out an "extra," and it was late in the afternoon when I reached home again. As I entered the house ray wife held up a ten and five dollar bill and said triumphantly: "There, my dear, you have that much to pay on a suit that will do you some good. You don't know what a good manager you've mar ried. While you were away to-day I sponged,brushed and gasolined your wedding suit until it looked almost as good as new, and 1 carried it down to old Isaacs, the second-hand and misfit man, and got $15 for it." ''Mary Jane," I said coldly, and it was the first time I had ever called her by her full name, and she turned as pale as I was. "Did you Mary Jane Dixon, look carefully* in all the pockets of that suit?" "Why, yes, Tom," she said, reas sured. "In all of them?" I asked again. "Yes, in all, I am certain." "In that miserable, wretched de ceptive, useless thing in the trousers called a watch pocket?" "Why-no-Tom. I didn't-I-I" She burst into tears. and,sat down with her apron over her face. I stalked into another room, and banged the door very hard. I opened it softly jn less that three minutes, andwell, we made it all up again, although we were very sober over our loss. My wife said she would do without a good many things that she never did without, and I tried to take an optimistic view of the affair, and supposed it was all for the best. To make matters a little worse, I drew from my pocket a large, square, ele gant-looking envelope, and said to my wife: "And here's an invitation to the much talk of Smythe-Durant wed ding next week, and I really would liketo go. I've known Helen Durant all her life, and I like her, if I do des pise that mob of a George Siuythe she is going to marry." "I'm so sorry," said my wife con tritely, "and here we might have gone as well as not if I hadn't sold your only black suit. It did look real nice, and quite as good as new, I dare say, by lamplight r,couldhave worn my wedding dress, and we could have made a very decent ap pearance. It is too bad!" She began crying again. I said I would go away and never come back if she didn't stop. Suddenly she jumped to her feet and said excited ly: "Why, Tom! how foolish we are! It isn't at all likely that old Isaacs has sold the suit yet, and in may be that hehasn't looked in the pockets. Let us hurry right down to his store and buy it bak We can tell him it was a mistake, as it truly was. Let us hurry right off." Wereached the uninviting store of B. Isaacs, dealer in second-hand and misfit garments, in about fifteen minutes, but the suit was gone! "I haf just sold it no more as dree minutes ond a half ago. It was not verth much. I makes me no moneys on dot sut. It vood not fit a man dot vays anything at all." I raced .mgrily out of the store. "Well," 1 aid, as we walked moodi ly homeward, "I'm not the only 100 pound six-footer in the town. That's evident. I'll keep my eyes on the other living skeletons, and if I find the one who has my trowsers, I'll have them back again by fair means or fouL" I kept a sharp lookout for lean men during the next week, and was gratified to discover that there were fifteen or twenty in the city as lean as myself^butall ofthem were saved the humiliation of being informed by me that they were wearing my clothes, a humiliation that might not perhaps have been lessened by the offer of 25 that I intended mak ing for their return. As the evening before the wedding before referred to drew near our de sire to attend it increas^l, and at last I said to my wife: "Well, I just cannot afford to get me another full dress suit that I might not need again for ten years. I'll stay at home forever and wear rags and tags before I'll wear a hiredsuit. But we can at least, go to church. It is to be a church wedding, you know, and I can wear an ordin ary business suit and overcoat to the churchif I don't find the man who has my clothes." But I did not find him, and we went early down to the church, that Mary Jane gave my arm an awful pinch return and an admonishing poke in the side withher fan. "No, my dear," I said, as wewalked homeward after the ceremony, "lam not mistaken. Theseweremy clothes. I would know those trousers if I saw them on a Hottentot. Didn't you detect a faint odor of gasoline as he went by our pew? To think, my dear that I cannot go to the most fashion able wedding of the season because the bridegroom has on my clothes! But if I had gone he'd had to have stayed at home, wouldn't he? Lean as we are, we couldn't both have worn those" "How perfectly ridiculous you are," interrupted Mary Jane. "I don't feel at all sure that they were your clothes," "But if they were, how are we go ing to get that $50 bill out of that pocket?" We didn't get it. But they were my clothes. I gave old Isaacs $1 for telling me that he had sold the suit to Smythe, who had sworn Isaacs to secrecy on the subject. He looked heart broken and turned green when I told him about that $50 bill. Fun With the Old Man. From Puck. He was a meek-looking old gentle man from the country, and as he took his seat at the dining-room table the drummers looked at him over their soup-spoons. They noted his weather-beaten face, his wet hair carefully parted and brushed around over his ears, and his air of diffidence as henervously fingered his fork and when the waiter girl stood at his side and winked at the boot-and-shoe man, they were all attention. "Soup?" she asked. The old man seemed a bit surprised at the brevity of the bill of fare, and fidgeted about as though waiting for her to say something more. "Would you like some soup?" said the girl, with a side-glance at the coffee-and-spice man. "I ain't particular about soup, as I know of, answered the old man. "Boil' mutt'n capersauce, roas' beef, r's' lamb, r's' veal, fricasse chick'n, cole ham, tongue, chick'n salad, fritters, boil' 'n' baked p'ta- tus," said the girl with lightning-like rapidity. The old man looked kind of help less, and the boys felt a little sorry for him as he kept his eyes fastened on the fork, which he shoved from side to side with his fingers. "I guess I'll takeI guess you'll have to say that again," he said, looking up, and the girl rattled the the whole thing off in exactly the same time as before. The old man looked 'round the table and caught sight ofa drummer winking at the girl then he jerked his head around, and looking her straight in the face, he said: "You may gimme s'm bile cornbeet 'n' cabbage, ros' beef, veaj'n'mutt'n, cole chick'n 'n' turkey 'n' tongue, s'm ham 'n' eggs 'n' codfish cakes sassage 'n' beefsteak a piece o' punkin pie 'n' cup a' coffee, sis 'n' now see ef yer kin make yer little legs fly 'e fast as yer kin yer tongue, for I wanter git home there's a shower comin' up." The girl hesitated, turned red, and then made a break for the kitchen, while the drummers laughed and the old man gazed out of the window at the gathering clouds. Lulbegrud Creek, Boone has recorded in his own quaint phraseology an incident of his life during this summer which shows how eagerly such a little band of frontiersmen read a book and how real its character became to their mind. He was encamped with five other men on Bed river, and they had with them for their "amusement the History of Samuel Gulliver's travels, wherein he gave an account of his young master, Glumderlick, caremg (sic) him on a market day for a show to a town called Lulbegrud." In the party who, amid such strange surroudings, read and listened to Dean Swift's writings was a young man named Alexander Neely. One night he came into camp with two Indians scalps taken from a Shaw nees' village he had found on a creek running into the river, and he an nounced to the circle of grim wilder ness veterans that "he had been that day to Lulbegrud and had killed two Brobdingnags in their capital." To this day the creek by which the two luckless Shawnees, lost their livesis known as Lulbegrud creek. "The Winning of the West"Boose velt. Sharks Pass Through the Canal. Before the Isthmus of Suez was pierced by the canal there were al most no sharks inthe Mediterranean, the passage through the Straits of Gibraltar not being to their liking. Now, however, they come in by way of the canal, and in such numbers that in more than one watering place, and especially on the Adriatic, the sign has goneup, "Beware of Sharks." Chicago Tribune. i i i YERY HARD CASH. I alW\lr* A Mntter-of-Fact Romance, #*$Hftv BY CHARLEB READB. lt ll 's fluctuating spirit Battled* now Into a calm demure complacency. Her mother finding this strange remedial virtue in youth ful society, gave young parties, inviting Jane and Alfred in their turn. Jane hesitat ed, but, as she could no longer keep Julia from knowing her worldly brother, and hoped a way might be opened for her to res cue Edward, she relaxed her general rule, wlnoh was, to go into no company unless some religious service foimed part of the en tertainment. Yet her conscience was ill at ease and, to set them an example, she took care, when she asked the Dodds in return, to have a clergymand co Eusband'with tft BuiWInsr In New York.^ *i The records of the department of buildings for the first half of this year show that the total value of the buildings for which plans were sub mitted during that period is $42,- 000,000 against $25,358,000 in the same period of last year.New York Sun. there of her own party, ^l pray an expound with unction Mrs. "odd, not to throw cold water seemed to gratify her children, accepted Miss Har dies invitation but she never intended to go, and at the last moment wrote to say*she was slightly indisposed The nature of the indisposition she revealed to Julia alone. "That young lady keeps me on thorns. I never feol Becure she will not Bay or do some thing extravagant or unuBual 6he seems lo suspect sohrioty aud good taste of being in league with impiety. Here I succeed in brid ling her a little but encounter a female enthu siast in her own house? Merci! After all, there must be something good in her since she is your iriend, and you are hers let her. pass I have something more serious to say to you before you go there. It is about her brother. Heisafiht in fact, a notorious one. more than one lady tells me." Julia was silent, but began to be very un easy they were Bitting and talking after sunset, yet without candles, she profited, for once, by that amazing gap in the intelligence of "the sex." "I hear he pays you compliments and I have seen a disposition to single you out. Now, my lore, you have the good sense to know that, whatever a young man of that age says to you, he says to many other ladies but your experience is not equal to your sense so profit by mine a girl of your age must never be talked of with a person of the other sex, it is fatal fatal! but it you per mit yourbelf to be singled out, you will be talked of inevitably, and distress those who love you. It is easy avoid in judicious duets in society oblige me by doing so to-night." To show how much she was in earnest, Mrs. Dodd hinted that, were her admonition neglected, she should regret, for once,having kept clear of an enthusiast. Julia had no alternative she assented in a faint voice. After a pause she faltered out, And suppose he should esteem me seriously?" Mrs. Dodd replied quickly, "Then that would be much worse. But,"said she, "I have no apprehensions on that score: you are a child, and he is a precocious boy, and rather a flirt. But forewarned is forearmed. So now run away and dress, sweet one: my lecture is quite ended." The sensitive girl went up to her room with a heavy heart. All the fears she had lulled of late revived. She saw plainly now that Mrs. Dodd only accepted Alfred as a pleasant acquaintance, as a son-in-law he was out of the question. "Oh, what will she say when she knows all?" thought Julia. Next day, sitting near the window, she saw him coming up the road. After the first movement of pleasure at the bare sight of him, she wassorry he had come. Mamma's suspicions awake at last, and here he was again the third call in one fortnight! She dared not risk an interview with him, ardent end unguarded, under that penetrating eye, which she felt would now be on the watch. She rose hurriedly, said as carelessly as she could, "I am going to the school," and, tying her bonnet on in a flurry, whipped out at the back door with her shawl in her hand just as Sarah opened the front door to Al- frejL She then shuffled on her shawl, and whisked-through the shubbery into the open field, and reached a path that led to the school, and so gratified was she at her dex terity in Cvading her favorite, that Bhe hung her head, and went murmur tag, "Cruel, cruel cruel!" Alfred entered the drawing-i oom gayly, with a good-sized card and a pi epared sp eech This was not the visit of a friend but a func tionary the treasurer of the cricket-ground, come to book two of his eighteen to play against the All England Eleven next month. "As for you, my worthy sir (turning to Edward), I shall just put you down without ceremony. But 1 must ask leave to book Captain Dodd. Mrs. Dodd, I come at the aniversal desire of the club they say it is sure to be a null match without Captain Dodd. Besides, he is a capital player." "Mamma, don't you be caught by his chaff," said Edward, quietly. "Papa is no player at all. Anything more unlike cricket than his way of making runs "But he makes them, old fellow now you and 1, at Lord's the other day, played in first-rate form, left shoulder well up, and achievedwith neatness, precision, dexterity, and dispatchthe British duck's-egg." "Misericorde! What is that?' inquired Mrs. Dodd. "Why, a round 0," said the other Oxonian, coming to his friend's aid. "And what is that, pray?" Alfred told her "the round 0," which had yielded to the duck's egg," and,was becoming obsolete, meant the cipher set by the scorer aganst a player's name, who is out without making a run. "I see," sighed Mrs. Dodd. "It penetrates to your very sports and games. And why British?" "Oh, British is redundant: thrown in by the universities "But what does it mean?" "It means nothing. This is the beauty of it. British is inserted in imitation of our idols, the Greeks they adored redundancy.', In short poor Alfred, though not an M. P., was talking to put off time, till Julia should come in: so he now favored Mrs. Dodd, of all eople, a flowery description of her play, which I, who have not his motive for volubility, suppress. However, he wound up with the captain's "moral influ- ence." "Last match," said he, "Barkington did not do itself justice. Several, that cduld have madcastand, were frightened out, ratherthan bowled, by the London profession als. Then Captain Dodd wentin, and treated those artists with the same good-humored contempt he would a parish bowler, and, in particular, sent Mynne's over-tossed balls flying over his head for six, or to square leg for four, and, on his retiring with twenty five, scored in eight minutes, the remaining Barkingtonians were less funky, and made some fair scores." Mrs. Dodd smiled a little ironically at this tirade, but snid she thought she might ven ture to promise Mr. Dodd's co-operation, should he reach home in time. Then, to get rid of Alfred before Julia's return, the amia ble worldling turned to Edward, "Your sis ter will not be back so you may as well ring the bell for luncheon at once. Perhaps Mr. Hardie will join us." Alfred declined, and took his leave with far less alacrity than he had entered with Ed ward went down-stairs with him. "Miss Dodd gone on a visit?" Asked Alfred, affecting carelessness. "Only to the school. By-the-bye, I will go and fetch her." "No, don't do that call on my sister in stead, and then you will pull me out ot a scrape. I promised to bring her here but her Baintship was so long adoring 'the poor perishabel body,' that I came alone." "I don't understand you," said Edward. "I am not the attraction here. It is Julia." "How do you know that? When a young lady interests herself in an undergraduate's BOUI, it is a pretty sure sign she liken the looks of him. But perhaps you don't want to be converted if so, keep clear of her. 'Bar the fell di agon's blighting.way but shun that lovely snare.' "On the contrary," said Edward, calmly, "I only wish she could make me as good as she is, or half as good." "Give her the chance, old fellow, and then it won't be your fault if she makes a mesa of It. Call at two, and Jenny will receive you very kindly, and will show you are in the 'gall of bitterness and the band of iniquity.' Now, won't that be nice?" "I will go," said Edward, gravely,, They parted. Where Alfred went the read er can perhaps guess Edward to luncheon. "Mamma,* said be, with that tranquillity which sat so well on him, "don't you think Alfred Hardie is spoony upon our Julia?" Mrs,0 Dodd supressed a start, and (per haps ggain time before replying sincerely) said sh nad not the honor of knowing what "spoony" meant. "Why, sighs for her, and dies for her, and fancies she is prettier than Miss Hardie. He must be over head and ears." "Pie, child!" waB the answer. "If I thought so, I should withdraw from their acquaintance. Excuse me: I must put on my bonnet at once, not to lose this fine afternoon." Edward did not relish her remark it menaced more Spoons than one. However he was not the man to be east down at a word he lighted a cigar, and strolled to ward Hardie's house. Mr. Hardie, senior, had left three days ago on a visit to Lon don Miss Haidie received him ho passed the afternoon in calm complacency, listening reverently to her admonitions, and looking her softly out of countenance, and into earthly affections with his lion eyes. Meantime his remark, so far from really seeming foolish to Mrs. Dodd, was the tiue reason for leaving him abruptly. "Even this dear slow Thing sees it," thought she. She must talk to Julia more seriously, and would go to school at once. She went up stairs, and put on her bonnet and shawl be fore the glass, then molded on her gloves and came down equipped. On the stairs was a large window, looking upon the open field she naturally cast her eyes through it, in the direction she was going, and what did she see but a young lady and gentleman coming slowly down the path toward the villa. Mrs. Dodd bit her lip with vexation, and looked keenly at them, to divine on what terms tbey were. And the more she looked the more uneasy she grew. The head, the hand, the whole person of a young woman walking beside one she loves, betrays her heart to experienced eyes watch ingunseen and most female eyes are experi enced at this sort of inspection. Why did Julia move so slowly? especially after that warning. Why was her head averted from that encroaching boy, and herself so near him? The anxious mother would much rather have seen her keep hor distance, and look him full in the face. Her first impulse was that of leopardesses, lionesses, hens, and all the mothers in nature to dart from her atnburfi and protect her young but she controlled it by a strong effort: it seemed wiser to descry the truth, and then act with resolution besides, the young people were now almost at the schrubbery so the mischief, if any. was done. They entered the shrubbery. To Mrs. Dodd's surprise and dismay they did not come out this side so quickly." She darted her eye into the plantation and lo! Alfred had seized the fatal opportunity fo liage offers, even when thinnest he held Ju lia hand, and was pleading eagerly for something she seemed not disposed to graut for she turned away and made an effort to leave him. But Mrs. Dodd, standing there quivering with maternal anxiety, and hot with shame, could not bat doubt the sinceri ty of that graceful resistance. If she had been quite in earnest, Julia had fire enough in her to box the little wretch's ears. She ceased even to doubt, when she saw that her daughter's opposition ended in his getting hold of two hands instead of one, and de vouring them with kisses, while Julia still drew her head and neck quite away, but the rest of her supple frame seemed to yield and incline, and draw softly toward her besieger, by some irresistible spell. "I can bear no more!" gasped Mrs. Dodd aloud, and turned to hasten and part them but even as she curved her stately neck to go, she caught the lovers' parting and a very pretty one too, if she could have looked at it. as these things ought always to be looked at: Artistically. Julia's head aud lovely throat, unable to draw the st of her away, compromised: they turn, declined, drooped, and rested one half moment on her captor's shoulder, like a settling dove the next, 6he scudded from him, and made for the house alone. Mrs. Dodd, deeply indignant, but too wise to court a painful interview with her own heart beating high, went into the drawing room and there sat down, to recover some little composure. But she was hardly seated when Julia's innocent voice was heard calling. "Mamma! mamma'" and soon she came bounding into the drawing-room, brimful of good news, her cheeks red as fire, and her eyes wet with happy tears and there con fronted her mother, who had started up at her footstep, and now, with one hand nip ping the back of thechairconvulsively, stood lofty, looking strangely agitated and hostile. The two ladies eyed one another, silent, yet expressive like a picture facing a statue but soon the color died out ofJulia's face as well, and she began to cower with vague fears before that stately figure, so gentle and plac id usually, but now so discomposed and stern. CHAPTER VIII. "WHERE have you been Julia?" "Only at the school," she faltered. "Who was your companion home?" "Oh, don't be angry with me! It was Al fred." "Alfred! His Christian name! You try my patience too hard-" Forgive me! I was not to blame this time, indeed! indsed You frighten me. What will become ofme? What have I done to be looked at BO?" Mrs. Dodd groaned. "Was that young coquette I watched from my wmdow.the child I have reared? No face on earth is to be trusted after this? 'What have you done,' indeed? Only riBked your own mother's es teem, and nearly broken her heart." And with these words her own courage began to give way, and she sank into a chair with deep sigh. At this Julia screamed, and threw herself on her knees beside her, and cried, "Kill me! oh, pray kill me! but don't drive me to de spair with Buch cruel words and looks!" and fell to sobbing so wildly that Mrs. Dodd al tered her tone with almost ludicrous rapidity. "There, do not terrify me with your im petuosity, after grieving me so. Be calm, child let me see whether I cannot remedy your sad imprudence and that I mav, pray tell me the whole truth. How did this come about?" In reply to this question, which Bhe some what mistook, Julia sobbed out, "He met me coming out of school, and asked to s-see me home. I said, 'No, thank you, because I th-thought of your warning. 'Oh, yes!' said he, and would walk with me, and kept saying he loved me. So, to stop him, I said, 'M-m-much ob-Jiged, but I was busy and had no time to flirt. 'Nor have I the in-in clination,' said he. 'That is not what others say of you,'said I. You know what you t-told me, mamma. So at last he Baid d-did ever he ask any lady to be his wife. 'I sup pose not,' or you would be p-p-private prop erty by now instead of p-public' "Now there was a foolish speech as much as to say nobody could resist him." "W-wasn't it? And n-no more they could. You have no idea how he makes love he is very unladylike keeps advancing and never retreats, nor even st-ops. 'But I ask you to be my wife,' said he. Oh, mamma, I trembled BO. Why did I tremble BO? I don't know. I made myself cold and haughty. I should make no reply to such ridiculous question? say that to mamma, if you dare?' I said." Mrs. Dodd bit her lips, and said, "Was there ever such simplicity?" "Simple! Why that was my cunning. You are the only creature he is afraid of so I thought to stop his mouth with you. But instead of that my lord said, calmly. 'That was understood he loved me to well to steal me from her to whom he was indebted for me.' Oh, he has always an answer ready. And that makes him such aji-p-pest." "It was an answer that did him credit." "Dear mammal now did it not? Then at parting he said he would come to-morrow, and ask you for my hand but I must inter-J cede with you, first, or you would be sure to soy 'No.' So I declined to interfere 'w-w-what was it to me?' I said. He begged and prayed me. 'Was it likely you would give him such a treasure as Me unless I stood his friend?" (For the b-b-razen Thing turns humble now and then.) And, oh, mumma, he did so im plore me to pity him, and kept saying nd man ever loved as he loved me, and with his begging and praying me so passionately, oh, so passionately, 1 lelt something warm drop from his poor eyes on my hand. Oh! oh! oh! ohl What could I do? And then, you know, I wanted to get a-way from him. So I am afraid I did just say 'Yes,' but onl.v in a whisper. Mamma, my own good, kind, darling mamma, have pity on me!! I We love one another so." A shower of tender tears gushed out in support of this appeal: and in a moment she was caught up with Love's mighty arms, and her head laid on her mother's yearning bosom. No word was needed to reconcile these two. After along silence Mrs. Dodd said that this would be a warning never to judge her sweet child from a distance again, or un heard. "And therefore," said she. "let me hear from your own Iios how so serious an attachment could spring up? Why, it is scarcely a month since you were first intro duced at that ball." "Mamma," murmured Julia, hanging her head, "you are mistaken We knew each other before." Mrs. Dodd looked all astonishment. "Now I will make a clean breast of it," said Julia, impetuously addressing some invisible obstacle. "I tell you I am sick of having secrets from my own mother." And with thu out it all came. She told the story of her heart better than I have. And, womanlike, dwelt on the depths of loyalty and delir ate love she had read in Alfred's moonlit face that night at Henley. She said no eloquence could have touched her like it. "Mamma, something said to me, 'Ay, look at him well, for that is your hus bandto be." She even tried to solve the mystery of her soi-disant sickness. "I was disturbed by a feeling so new and so power ful, but, above all, by having a secret from you the first the last "Well, darling, then why have a secret. Why nottrust me, yourfnend as well as your mother?" "Ah! why, indeed! I am a puzzle to myself. I wanted you to know, and yet I could not tell you. 1 kept giving you hints, and hoped so you would take them, and make me speak out. But when I tried to tell you plump, something kept pullpullpulling me inside, and I couldn't. Mark my words' some day it will turn out that I am neither more nor less than a fool." Mrs. Dodd slighted this ingenious solution. She said,after a moments reflection, that the fault of this misunderstanding lay between the two. "I remember now I have had many hints. My mind must surely have gone to sleep. I was a poor simple woman who thought her daughter was to be always a child. And you were very wrong: to go and set a limit to your mother's love. There is nonenone whatever." She added "I must import a little prudence and respect for the world's opinion into this new connec tion but whoever you love shall find no enemy in me." Next day Alfred came to his fate. He was received with ceremonious courtesy. At first he was a good deal embarrassed, but this was no sooner seen than it was relieved by Mrs. Dodd .rith tact and gentleness When her turn came, Bhe said, "Your papa? Of course you have communicated this step to him?" Alfred looked a little confused, and said, "No he left for London two days ago, a6it happens." "That is unfortunate," said Mrs. Dodd. "Your best plan would be to write to him at once. I need hardly tell you that we shall enter no family without an invitation from its head Alfred replied that he was well aware of that, and that he knew his father, and could answer for him. "Nodoubt." said Mrs. Dodd, "but as a matter treasonable form, I prefer he should answer for himself." Alfred would write by this post. "It is a mere form," said he, "for my father has but one answer to his children, 'Please your selves.' He sometimes adds, 'and how much money shall you want?" These are his t*o formulae." He then delivered a glowing eulogy on his father, and Mrs. Dodd, to whom the boy's character was now a grave and anxious btudy, saw with no common satisfaction his cheek flush, and his eyes moisten, as he dwelt on the calm.sober. unvarying affection, and reasonable indulgence, he and his sister had met with all their lives from the best of parents. Beturning to the topic of topics, he proposed an engagement. "I have a ring in my pocket,'' 6aid this brisk woer, looking down But this Mrs. Dodd thought premature and unnecessary. "You are nearly of age," said she. and then you will be able to niarry if you are in the same mind But upon being wai mlv pressed, she half conceded even this. "Wen,'' said she, "on receiving your father's consent, you can propose an engagement to Julia, and she shall use her own judgment. But un til then you will not even mention such a thing to her. May I count on so much for bearance irom you sir?" "Dear Mrs. Dodd," said Alfred, "of course you may. I should indeed be ungrateful if I could not wait a post for that. May I write to my father here?" added he, nahely. Mrs. Dodd smiled, furnished him with writing materials, and left him, with a polite excuse. "ALBION VILLA, SEPT. 29. "MY DEAR FATHER,You are too thorough a man of the world, and two well versed in human nature, to be surprised at hearing that, I, so long invulnerable, have at la&t formed a devoted attachment to one whose beauty, goodness, and accomplishments I will not now enlarge upon they are inde scribable, and you will very soon see them and judge for yourself. The attachment, though short in weeks and months, has been a very long one in hopes, aud fears, and devotion. I should have told you of it be fore you left, but in truth I had no idea I was so near the goal of all my earthly hopes. There were many difficulties, but these have just cleared away almost miraculously, and nothing now is vranting to my happmet-s but your consent, it would be affectation, or worse, in me to doubt that you will gr.mfc it. But in a matter so delicate, I venture to ask you for something more. The mother of my ever and only beloved Julia is a lady of high breeding and sentiments. "She will not let her daughter enter any family without a cordial invitation from its head. Indeed, she has just told me so. I ask, therefore, not your bare consent, of which I am sure, since my happiness for life depends on it, but a consent so gracefully wordedand who can do this better than you?as to gratify the just pride and sensi bilities of the highmmded family about to confide its brightest ornament to my care. "My dear father, in the midst of felicity al most more than mortal, the thought has come that this letter is my first step toward leaving the paternal roof under which I have been so happy all my life, thanks to you. I should indeed be unworthy of all your good ness if this thought caused me no emotion. "Yet I do but yield to nature's universal law. And, should I be master of my own destiny, I will not go far from you. I have been uniust to Barkington or rather I have echoed, without thought, Oxonian prejudices and affectation, On mature reflection, I know no better residence for a married man Do you remember about a year ago you mentioned a Miss Lucy Fountain to ne as thomost perfect gentlewoman you hod ever met?" Well, strange to Bav, -3E it is that very lady's daughter and I think when you see her you will say the breed has anything but declined, in spit* of Horace and his 'dnm nosa quid non.' ller brother is my dearest friend, and she is Jenny's so amorehappv alliance for all parties was never projected*. "Write to me by return, dear father, and believe me "Ever your dutiful and grateful son, "ALFRED MABDIE.*' [TO BE CONTJSOED.J ^"^ffiWl^^ -ii, I^^^^^M