Year: 1864


public appearance among them. Lady Godiva
riding through the village in the original Coventry
costume, could not have caused greater sensa-
tion. Mrs. Honiton was as beautiful as radiant
as young as ever It was evident that she had
not been plunged into any violent grief she had
not cried her eyes out and spoiled her beauty ,
she had not Aeen left destitute to give others the
luxury ofcommiserating and helping her; and.
worse than all, she wore SO very natty and retir-
ing widow cap, that you could scarcely detect
that emblem of her bereavement. / don't exactly
know what an invisible perule is, but Mrs Honi-
ton headgear was certainly an invisible widow 8
cap. 1t was considered quite scandalous that
Mrs Honiton should have got over her calamity
so easily I'm order however to aeauit the Iady
of any charge OF heartiessness which may be
founded upon these facts, / may state that she
gave her hand to Mr.. Honlton at the stern COM
mand Of her father, reservng her heart to herself
and that Mr.. Honiton was little better than an
idiot, gentleman who spent nearly the whole of
his time in the stable and the kennel and placed
his wife IN the scale of his affection after his horse
his dog and his gun. Under these circumstances
ton to show herself deeply grieved, but what ag-
grayated the female community most deeply was
Mrs. Honiton 8 widow cap. When she appear
ed in it for the first time in church she looked
lovelier than ever. The merest suspicion of
crimped white muslin peeping out between her
black bonnet and her golden hair gave an addition
al piQuancy to her beauty. And then her weeds
were all SO fashionably made and elegantly worn
that her figure really seemed to be improved by
them. Her pink complexion stood out in charm
ing contrast against her black Grape bonnet. and
this last mentioned portion of her dress was a
dainty eoekle-shel article so neat and natty that
you might have imagined it to be 9 wedding bon
net dyed black.


Do you wonder that the women folks were in
dignant2 They would have been more than wo-
men, more than mortal. if they had net. They
had suffered already at the hands of this ensnar-
ing siren they had got rid of her, as they had
fondly hoped for ever, and here she was again
troubling their waters as Of yore. Her cap was
assaed at once. Ii was a heartless meckery to
put on thing like that, and her husband only
dead SIX weeks, and she ought to be ashamed of
herself But Mrs Honiton did not appear at all
ashamed She paid close attention TO the service,
and said all the responses and sang all the psalms,
and with her calm pale face and placid eyes turned
upwards looked like an angel-at least that is
what young Parkinson thought-Parkinson who
had never closed either his eyes or his mouth
since the far vision burst upon him at the very
commencement of the service.


Such was the state of affairs when Mr. Charles
Beyington came to reside in our village Mr.
Charles Bevington was a rising young barrister-a
handsome, dashing fellow, with black whiskers,
and an easy, nenchalant address. Physically he
was 4 sort of prize man; specimen of humanity
who would have carried off the gold medal at an
exhibition of his species He had a broad fore
head and broad chest his frame was muscular
and strongly knit his hair curled all over his well
set head and his eyes beamed with yigOr and VI
vacity. With all this lie had ready tongue,
wonderful faculty for talking rafting nonsense;
and he was a bachelor. He was the sort of person
who, as soon as he is seen, proyokes the emphatic
commentary, What handsome mani His
good looks so strongly developed, and, as whole,
so complete and unfeniablc.-ffiat even married Ia
dies. in the presence of their husbands could not
restrain their admiration an( husbands could hear
their remarks with COM placeney for II was start
hng fact which nobody could deny. 1t was natu-
raj to say that Mr.. Charles Beyington was hand
some, as it would have been to say that a man sew
en- feet high was TALL Like all the others, AIr.
Beyington became attracted by the beauty ut the
Young widow and very shortly after his arrival N
the village he came to me raying about her.


II wish you would marry her L said


Mr. Bevington was startled at my comm. down
upon him plump at the first word with the eXpres-
sion ofsuch wish as this.


''Why-how do you mean he STAN
mered out.


Il mean exactly what I say. . repeated IT
wish you would marry Mrs Honiton, for thereby
you would do the village a signal SERVED.


Il should have thought quite the contrary,
he replied for all the young fellows are mad at-
ter her


THAT the mischief" | said.


''Mischief / really don't understand you.


''Why. the fact is, Mrs. Honiton monopolizes
the attention of all the young men, and the other
young ladies in the village have nobody to make
love to them. fMrs. Honiton were married, five
or six eligible parties would be let loose from her
tail to 90 and court elsewhere. Our damsels are
languishing fer beaJIx and all on account of this
bewitehed widtw.


tsTI n - J - ~


'.No, | said but the young ladies wonder at
it, and what's more they don't like it; and if
You'll only 20 and marry Mrs. Honiton out Of the
way, m sure they'll subscribe for testimonial
to you. n


Perfectly So, replied =; in fact, | would
marry her myself out of pity for the poor girls
only for the trifing obstacle Of which you are a
ware, that / am married already


Has she money? he asked.


Lot" replied.


,'Then, be said, thereis no need to ask more
questions, for / dor require you or any one else
to tell me that she is as beautiful as an angel BY
Jove I'lltake your advice, and stick up to her.


,'Do, said; 'and ifyou only win the widow 5
heart, you will at the same time WIN the hearts OF
all the unmarried ladies' of the village. Maidens
and matrons will allbe ready 60 praise you. =


In that case, he said. shall step into a
perfect mine of affection. Well I'll go in for it,
at any rate.


Eyes, . said, do go in and win


Mr. Bevington did go in for it. He laid siege
to the widow immediate, much to the indignation
and disgust Of her train of admirers, who looked
upon the encroachment Of the tall, handsome bar
rister as something entirely disproportionate and
unfair When Mr.. Beyington dashed into the
midst Of them, and carried the widow off in tri-
unph his rivals fell off timidly and looked up at
him as much as to say, "Why don you compete
with one Of your own size ?' The widow, howey-
er, was by no means inclined to encourage q mo-
nopolf Of herself and still continued to distribute
her smiles with inpartiality The consequence
was, that her many admirers held for some time
and did their best to dispute the ground with the
handsome barrister but it was very discouraging
work. The barrister almost invariably got the
best of it, and en- such occasions the widow would
look at her train and shrug her pretty shoulders
as much as to say 'It is really not my fault
try to give you all chance and if you let this
dashing, blaek-whiskered man cut you out, why,