Year: 1859

others sutherland she was too young and to
4 inexperienced to understand herself na 1t wa


a, pity, was a pity, they said, that the fathe


allowed it; but, he was such careless, in


different, good for nothing fellow, that he wa


neither guide or father to- her. Therefore


some among the friends took the other side


and thought anything good which should res


cue her from an uncongenial, home, and Civ


her that protection and responsibility, whicl


she scarcely received from her father, with hi


dyed hair and padded coats: out all day ant


up all night; filling his house with strang


men of questionable habits and associations


The Ayes had it, and the marriage prepare


tons went on. Pretty Annie, Fare indulget


in her quiet dreams of peace and home, ant


drew out for herself the plan of her house
| keeping, which was to be so wonderfully per
| feet and complete; and pictured the ,deligh


that she should find in the order and regular


ity of her married life, and was contended
satisfied, and quite resolved. ,...,r.,.5t r &.
Parcy Clark himself thought he was grave


and somewhat stern. to those with whom III


had no special connection, had been q devot


ed son to that unloveable old mother of his


AMI was not that guarantee for Annie p


Then, how calm and uniform he was in his


manners to her; and this was much to tim


i'd. reserved nature, such as Annie's; whose


nerves had been Jared by her fathers noisy
life and dcsolate imperative ways, and tc


whom that whirlwind of passionate, demon.
strative, Unsuitable love, which novelists and
youth delight in, would have been simple
obstruction. Annie reasoned deliberately
about her marriage, and did not think tia bad
thing on the whole. Although she was only
twenty, and he eight-and- thirty, and though
her rich brown hair hung bright and thick and
warm over her young face, and his wandered
spare and grey down his sallow shrunken face.
She was not romantically in love with him =
she knew that but she respected him. He
was quiet regular, and unexacting. Above
all, he was relief and released. 1t was
not future to turn from without some special
cause wretched as she was in that almost
disgraceful home of hers and a young girl,
unhappy at home, can find many good reas-
ons why her lover is just the man she would
have chosen, had she had the privilege of
choice


They married and week after the mar
riage he took her to his house in Bloomsbury,
and Annie's real life began.-of + -.... ...


Percy was the junior partner in a lawyers
Office; with respectable income and res
pectable position. Indeed, no other word was
so we'll suited to him as this most comprehen-
sive term for he was in all things aemnently
and thoroughly respectable. Mediocre, too !;
which English middle-class respectability i'm
plies. ...,.'1 .''7-. p


Of fair average intellect of fair average
social standing, of middle height; by no means
bad looking--but by no means handsome -
ofjust such fortunes as professional men have
when they are comfortably off; without an
expensive habit, an unusual taste or a wild
a,-hc was the very type of tlfe ordinary
class Englishman loved by none, hated by
none, but respected by ALL He performed
the customary duties of life with a regularity
and without enthusiasm. He went to church
punctually once every Sunday, in. fine wealth
er He was silent man at all times; rarely
heard to express an opinion even on leading
article of the foreign Intelligence; parliament
ary committees sat unscrutinised by him; he
read the debates without advocacy, and he
did not censure the conduct of the Generals
abroad in active service. Yet no one said
his silence Arose from stupidity. On the con-
trary, his friends believed hiin to he deep
and thoughtful man and that he could, if he
would, say much on all matters. His behav
iour to his young wife was In harmony with
the rest of him. lie was never harsh to her,
never i'll. .humored, but never tender or caresing:
not even during that first week spent at
Dayenshire watering place, when he had laid
silent on the sands all the summer day, with
his hat over his eyes and his arms crossed be-
hind his head, while Annie worked beside
him, and strangers thought him dreamiy and
luxuriously happy. What lucky fellow to
have the dear little woman in that round hat
for wife, and how madly in love with her he
must be But after that brief and shadowy
honeymoon, where he brought her home, and
recommended his daily work at the Office as
if nothing had happened, he might have been
married many years for all the lover.like at
tentions or tenderness he bestowedon her. An
ME had never been accustomed to attention or
tenderness 5, so didn't miss them from her mar
ried life, and was quite as happy as she ex-
pccted to be. She had her house to manage,
her servants to initiate mysterious secrets cal
led ways" her weekly bills to make up.
and ponder for hours where that mistake of
two-pence farthing could be: she had her
neede-work to do, her collars to embroider,
her ocket-handkcrchiefs to hem, and his shirt
buttons and socks to superintend so that
she got through her days in all gentle tran
guilty never idle never hurried-a smooth
life running on its even course, in which there
was nothing to distress, TO enrapture, or to
excite.


Percy Clarke impressed but one thing on
his wife-the need of strict economy. In to-
ken whereof he made her very meagre al
lowance for the home Yet Annie contrivel
that it should be sufficient, in this wonderful
way in which clever housekeepers can save
unseen expenses without curtailing the pub
lie comforts of the family. She studied all
the best economies, and devised private and
peculiar savings of her own, and was thus
and domestic refinement decidedly beyond her
allowance. % f : :. r.


81 hope you are not getting indebt, ANNIE"
Percy would sometimes say, if she had pro-
viled dinner more snowy than ordinary -
though she always contrived to have one
special delioaey at least on the table.


No, Percy, you may see my books" An
ME would answer with little quiet triumph !;
81 have made it do exactly this week. and
have just fourpence over" E


Very well. l do not want details; only
do not exceed, that is ALL" And Annie did
not.


Old Mrs Clark, the mother, lived in a small
mouse at the upper END OF lslngton She
was an invalid !; and not softened by her age
and infr1nities. She was as hard as her son,
and not SO even-tempered good deal more
exacting, and actively selfish for Percy's
faults We're but negative at the worst. Mrs
Clarke was accustomed to say that '.she had
never taken to hat Aunt Fare" She thought
her too young, and did not believe in her
housekeeping for Mrs. Clarke was of the old
school, and believed in nothing that did not
include constant supervision and active doing
among the servants to the mistress. She was
and would have thought it infinite negligence
if mistress gave her servant the key of her
tea-caddy, or suffered her in the store-closet
unmatched.


She it is who continually impressed on
Percy her conviction of waste and unthrift in
1S L. 1.xA1- 4