, 1877-02-02
CHAPTER II.

last illness, and who, to her occasional
occupation rs nurse, added the more
permanent one of letting dodgers.
Mary's sweet face and gentle manner
had quite won the heart of her good
natured landlady, who was unceaslng in
/ her endeavOrs to soothe her grief and
minister to her comforts. Mary still
showed in face and figure the tokens of
/ the fiery trial through which she had
passed. Her slight form looked slight
er still in her soft, black drapery. and
/ the shadow of an unfOrgotten sorrow
still rested on her delicate features.
Mary Hope had been her fathers con-
/ slant companion; and she sOrely missed
| the happy hours in which his powerful
/ intellect and varied experience had been
| unfolded for her benefit. But she had,
| too. another trouble-none the less hard
I to bear that it was one in which she
had few confdants. Major Howard, of
whom mention has already been made,
was not only her fathers most valued
friend, but had insensibly grown very
dear to herself; and when, six months
before Bernard Hopes death, he was
summoned with his regiment to India,
he left Mary his promised bride. Twice
he had written within the few weeks
of his departure, since which time
there had been terrible silence; and in
the same week which left Mary father
less a second blow fell upon her. The
One Hundred and Eleventh had been en-
gagged in a smart skirmish, the number
of dead and wounded being consider
able. Major Geoffrey Howard was re-
ported among the fallen; and Mary had
to mourn at once her lover and her
father.
The death of Major Howard left Mr..
Slythorpe sole trustee of Mr.. Hopes
will. This to Mary was matter of the
most perfect Indifference. Suspecting
evil of no one, she was as willing that
her little fortune, amounting to some
five or six thousand pounds, should rest
entirely in Mr.. Slythorpe's hands as in
those of any other person. But of late
the attorney had began to persecute her
with attentions which, under existing
circumstances, would have been dis
tasteful to any one, but which were
doubly SO from person whom she
could not help regarding with an
instructive dislike. And in truth Mr..
Slythorpe was not precisely the person
to win fair lady's fancy. Undersized,
high-shouldered, with blinking, lashless
eyes, and aageneral angularity, not to
say knobbiness, of feature, he might
have been expected to rise superior to
any weakness as to personal appearance;
but such was by no means the case. In
Mr.. Samuel Slythorpe's own opinion,
Mr.. Samuel Slythorpe was gentleman
of considerable personal advantages,
and it was his constant endeayor to
make the very best of them. He was
obtrusively, we might almost say often
sively, clean. His shirt-front, collar
and wristbands were all of the most lib
eral dimensions, and of intense white
the appearance, of being, so to
speak, ~all Shirt" while his hand,
which were naturally coarse and red,
we're made still coarser and redder by
perpetual washing. he was always pro-
fusely scented, and his short, scrubby
hair was tortured, by the combined use
OF the brush and pomatum- pot, into the
semblance of split almonds wherewith
tipsy-cakes are won't to be decorated.
His hats and coats were always intensely
new, and he perpetually creaked as he
moved his patent-leather boots, main
tanning a friendly rivalry in this partie-
ular with his well-starched shirt front.
In his habitual gorgeous array indeed,
if possible, looking even cleaner and
newer than usual--Mr. Slythrope this
morning knocked at Mrs. Murgatroyd's
door. That good lady was at the mo-
ment engaged in dusting Miss Hopes
room, and catching sight Of his ap-
proach, exclaimed;
'nThere's that nasty worriting lawyer
again, 1 do declare. Slythorpe indeedl
I'd Slythorpe himl"
1t would be hopeless to endeavor to
express on paper the intensity Of mean
ing Mrs. Murgatroyd threw into her
newly-coined verb; but it was evident
that >" Slythorping in her mind in
cluded ali the tortures of the Middle
Ages, with a supplement Of horsepond
and other modern inventions. Mary
smiled at the good lady's vehemence.
my dear Mrs. Murgatroyd, you re-
ally shouldn't be 50 severe. Mr.. Sly
thorpe il q little peculiar, butI have no
doubt he means kindly and you know
he IL the trustee Of poor papa's viii"
"I know he ia. my dear, and I wish
he wasn't. know he shouldn't be \
trustee 10 a cat Of mine, drat him ]"
''Now, really, Mrs. Murgntroyd, you
are too bad, :" said Mary, smiling IN spite
Of herself. II am sure poor Slythorpe
isn't nearly 20 dreadful a. you make him
ont"
AZ this point he conversation was in
trrrupied By the enhance of the gen
tlcman IN question, and Mrn. Murgn-
troyd, passing him With hnal anin q
abhorrcnce, quilted TIE apartment.
Mr.. Slytho1pe, Cor onoe An his life,