Year: 1864

The carelessness with which some
men choose their wives is wonderful to
me; they seem to bestow more trouble
aud pains upon the choice of coat.
One or two inntances which have come
to my notice will account for the charge
! have brought against the lords ofcrc-
alton; but only some of them, for 9TH
ers, finding none good enough end by
remaining old bachelors; and it is best
they should, for men of that sort would
have worried angels, had they happen
ed to marry them. qr


Then, there's young Balmayne am
sure / never thought he would have
done so well rs he has, after that inn
prudent hurried marriage of his, and he
is heir to so much. But it's all right
now, aud ! will tell you how it came to
pass. Nc


You must know Balmayne hadn't
much to do last winter in town, when
he was up with his father, who was i'll
of the gout; so he used to spend great
deal Of his time looking ont Of the di-
ming room window as his father has
one of those houses in Piccadilly, not
far from Beresiord's of course he saw
a good many people go by in the course
of the day. N


One morning it rained hard-quite a
pelt; and rs he was at his post, he saw
a pretty girl running across the road
from the park, straight to the porch
which was over the front of his fathers
house. She had no umbrella; so, of
course, Balmayne's first impulse was to
lend her one. He put on his hat and
coat just rs if he was going for a
walk himself, and opened the door.


She really was very pretty and very
wet. She wouldn't come in to be dried,
for she was ina hurry TO be home, so,
Us the offered umbrella was heavy one,
Balmayne carried it for her himself.
She was a girl of good family but very
poor-that evil, worse than lin, in the
eyes Of some people. However, to
make a long story short, Balmayne
married her before the season was over;
and more than that, he told his father
that such was his intention. This
brought on another fit of the gout, and
the old gentleman vowed and declared
that he never would see her. So mat
ters were in this fix till it was time to
go down for the 18th, and as the moors
were in capital order, and large par
ty coming to the old gentleman's High
land box, Balmayne must come with
him, and leave his beautiful young bride
behind. This griaved him sadly; but
at last a bright idea occurred to him,
which he carried out, as we shall relate;
for all these are true stories.


At the Eastern Square Railway Sta
ton, when Balmayne arrived with his
father, there was such rush for seats
that they had some difficulty in finding
one and as to carriage to themselves,
that was out of the question; but they
secured compartment which, as we all
know, contains only four. One lady
was already in this, but with the old
gentleman's innate polteness, he would
not hear of her moving, though as his
gouty foot was obliged to be placed on
the opposite seat, there was only Just
room for them.


The lady sat by the old gentleman,
and the son opposite to her. The lady
was very pretty and seemed so sorry,
and syinpathizing, whcncvep twingc
of the gout forced strong expression
of pain from the old gentleman, that at
last he began to take some notice other,
and talk to her. Balmayne, absorbed
in his newspaper, left them entirely to
themselves; and before they had reach.
ed York, they were quite g BOD friends.
1t so happened that the yaung lady. too,
was going to spend the night at York !;
and rs she was quite alone, the old gen
tleman told her she had better come to
the same hotel as they did, and his SER
want should look after her things, for ev-
idently Balmayne did not take the small
lest notice Of her, and, seeing his want
of proper politeness, perhaps, made the
old gentleman all the more attentive.


Next morning they again set out ON
thoir northern journey, and altogether
rs before, for the lady seemed quite to
belong to them now. Having ascertain-
ed that she was going down to o place
within few miles of his own shooting
box, the old gentleman promised to see
her to the end of her journey, which
was rather long one as she travelled
slowly, being i'll delicate health, and ow-
ilg to his gou', the Old gentleman did
the same so as it turned out, they re-
manned together the whole way. When
they got to the last station, before leav-
ing the railway for county roads, the
two gentlemen got out, the father desi-
ring the lady TO remain where she was
in the waiting room till he had his lug
gage put on to it. She obcyed with q
very sweet smile, but looked uncom-
monty nervous. Balmayne also looked
nervous, which was odd. lie had fol-
lowed his father, who was looking for n
fly for his pretty protege. "Upon my
word, as nice a'girl as ever l met" said
the old gentleman. Really Pm quite
sorry to lose sight of her. How she
would enliven the moors, wouldn't she
Balmayne?"


But Balmayne was white as n sheet
and he could hardly speak. At last,
however, he did say: "you nccdn'tlose
her unless you like, father"


How now, young gentleman, what
do you mean 2" said the father brist
ling up.


Il mean that she's my wife," gasped
out the unfortunate Balmayne.


"By Joye!' said the oil gentleman,
turning as purple rs turkey -gobblcr
"who could have thought it? You i'm
pudcnt young rascal"