nuts and and cakes and r when the was set forth on the by s contribution which was a great f smoking potatoes he was by from producing any other tes on thb hb led intended mother in law to the post of honour for the better of this place at the high festival the majestic old soul had adorned a cap calculated to inspire the thoughtless with sentiments of awe she also wore her gloves but let ns be genteel or die sat next his daughter dot and her old w re side by side the good took care of the bottom of e table miss was isolated for the time being from every article of furniture but the chair die sat on that she might have nothing else to the baby s head against as stared about her at the and toys they stared at her and at the company the venerable old gentlemen at the street doors who were all in action showed especial interest in the par pausing occasionally leaping aa if they were listening to the conversation and then plunging wildly over and over a great many times without halting for � as in a frantic state of delight with the whole pro certainly if these old gentlemen were inclined to have a joy in the contemplation of s discomfiture they had good reason to be satisfied couldn t get on at all and the more cheerful his intended became in dot s the less he liked it though he had brought them tt ther for that purpose for he was a regular dog in the was and when they laughed and he couldn t he took it into his head immediate that they must be laughing at him ah may said dot dear dear what changes to talk of merry school days makes one young again why you an t particularly old at any time ace you f said look at my sober husband there returned dot he adds twenty years to my age at least don t you john forty john replied how many you add to s i am said dot laughing but she can t be hundred years of age on her next birthday ha ha i laughed laugh though and he looked as if he dot s neck comfortably dear dear said dot on y to thb on thb used to talk at school about the husbands we would choose i don t know how young and how handsome and how gay and how lively mine was not to be and as to may s � ah dear i don t know whether to laugh or cry when i think what silly girls we were may seemed to know which to do for the colour flashed into her face and tears stood in her eyes even the very persons themselves � real live young men � we fixed on sometimes said dot we thought how things would come about i never fixed on john i m sure i never so much as thought of him and if i had told you you were ever to be married to mr why you d have me wouldn t you may though may didn t say yes she certainly didn t say no or express no by any means laughed � quite shouted he laughed so loud john laughed too in his ordinary good natured and contented manner but his was a mere whisper of a laugh to s you couldn t help yourselves for all that you couldn t resist us you see said here we are here we are where are your gay young now some of them are dead said dot and some of them forgotten some of them if they could stand among us at this moment would not believe we were the same creatures would not believe that what they saw and heard was real and we could forget them so no they would not believe one word of it why dot exclaimed the little woman she had spoken with such earnestness and fire that she stood in need of some recalling to herself without doubt her husband s check was very gentle for he merely interfered as he supposed to shield old but it proved effectual for she stopped and said no more there was an uncommon agitation even in her silence which the who had brought his half shut eye to bear upon her noted closely and remembered to some purpose too may uttered no word good or bad but sa quite still with her eyes cast down and made no sign of in what had passed the good lady her mother now interposed observing in the first instance that girls were girls and and that so as young people were young and thb on thb hearth would probably conduct like young and thoughtless persons with two or three other positions of a no less sound and character she then remarked in a devout spirit that she thanked heaven she had always found in her daughter may a dutiful and obedient child for which she took no credit to herself though she had every reason to believe it was entirely owing to herself with regard to mr she said that he was in a moral point of view an individual and that he was in an eligible point of view a son in law to be desired no one in their senses could doubt she was veiy emphatic here with regard to the family into which he was so soon about after some to be admitted she believed mr knew that although reduced in purse it had some to and that if certain circumstances not wholly she would go so far as to say with the trade but to which she would not more particularly refer had happened differently it might perhaps have been in possession of wealth she then remarked that she would not allude 