mrs and where by throwing out a bow window or carrying up the roof another story or making some little alteration of that sort they might the personal history and experience live comfortably and for a few years whatever was reserved for liim he expressly said or wherever his abode might be we might rely on this � there would always be a room for and a knife and fork for me we acknowledged his kindness and he begged us to forgive his having launched into these practical and business like details and to excuse it as natural in one who was making entirely new arrangements in life mrs tapping at the wall again to know if tea were ready broke up tliis particular phase of our friendly conversation she made tea for us in a most agreeable and whenever i went near her in handing about the tea cups and bread and butter asked me in a whisper whether d was fan or dark or whether she was short or tall or something of that kind which i think i liked after tea we discussed a variety of topics before the fire and mrs was good enough to sing us in a small thin flat voice which i remember to have considered when i first knew her the very table beer of the favorite of the dashing white and little for both of these songs mrs had been famous when she lived at home with her papa and mr told us that when he heard her sing the first one on the first occasion of his seeing her beneath the parental roof she had attracted his attention in an extraordinary degree but that when it came to little he had resolved to win that woman or perish in the attempt it was between ten and eleven o clock when mrs rose to replace her cap in the brown paper parcel and to put on her bonnet mr took the opportunity of putting on his great coat to slip a letter into my hand with a whispered request that i would read it at my leisure i also took the opportunity of my holding a candle over the to light them down when mr was going first leading mrs and was following with the cap to detain for a moment on the top of the stairs said i mr don t mean any harm poor fellow but if i were you i wouldn t lend him anything my dear ned smiling i haven t got anything to lend you have got a name you know said i oh you call that something to lend returned with a thoughtful look certainly oh said yes to be sure i am very much obliged to you but � i am afraid i have lent him that already for the bill that is to be a certain i ed no said not for that one this is the first i have heard of that one i have been thinking that lie will most likely propose that one on the way home mine s another i hope there will be nothing wrong about it said l i hope not said i should think not though because he told me only the other day that it was provided for that was mr s expression provided mr looking up at this juncture to where we were standing i of david had only time to repeat my caution thanked me and descended but i was much afraid when i observed the good natured manner in which he went down with the cap in his hand and gave mrs his arm that he would be carried into the money market neck and heels i returned to my fireside and was musing half gravely and half laughing on the character of mr and the old relations between us when i heard a quick step ascending the stairs at first i thought it was coming back for something mrs had left behind but as the step approached i knew it and felt my heart beat high and the blood rush to my face for it was s i was never of and she never left that in my thoughts � if i may call it so � where i had placed her from the first but when he entered and stood before me with his hand out the darkness that had fallen on him changed to light and i felt confounded and ashamed of having doubted one i loved so heartily i loved her none the less i thought of her as the same gentle angel in my life i reproached myself not her with having done him an injury and i would have made him any if i had known what to make and how to make it why old boy dumb laughed shaking my hand heartily and throwing it gaily away have i detected you in another feast you these doctors fellows are the men in town i believe and beat us sober oxford people all to nothing his bright glance went merrily round the room as he took the seat on the sofa opposite to me which mrs had recently and stirred the fire into a blaze i was so surprised at first said i giving him welcome with all the cordiality i felt that i had hardly breath to greet you with well the sight of me is good for sore eyes as the scotch say replied and so is the sight of you in full bloom how are you my i am very well said i and not at all to night though i confess to another party of three all of whom i met in the street talking loud in your praise returned who s our friend in the i gave him the best idea i could in a few words of mr he laughed heartily at my feeble portrait of that gentleman and said 