us.

tions begin to grow slack. Besides, as I could easily make you understand, if I had time, there are many other reasons which would make our leaving Paris desirable, when we have got dear Bertha Harrington with In the first place there would be something extremely disagreeable in having Lady Moreton and Lady Forton for ever spying to find out whether Edward was beginning to be attentive to her, and all sorts of curious peeping besides; and, in the next place, Roberts, it will be quite as well after we leave Paris that you should call her your ward. This sounds respectable in every way, and when there are no people near who are likely to know much about her, or to ask any troublesome questions, there cannot possibly be any objection to it. But, let us be where we will, Mr. Roberts, don't, for mercy's sake, go about talking of our having engaged a young lady to come and board with us."

"No, my dear, I will not," replied Mr. Roberts, with the unmistakeable air of being very much in earnest. "You may quite and entirely depend that I will not; for I give you my word that now you have pointed it out to me, I see perfectly well what you mean, and I am altogether of your opinion about it. I see as plain as possible that it does not sound as it ought to, and I ought to be thankful for always having one near me who can so well set me right when I am wrong. But do tell me one thing more, my dear, will you? Did her ladyship downright and bonâ fide, as we say, did she bona fide propose that this rich young lady, her niece, should come and live with us ?""

Although Mrs. Roberts was at that moment in a very particularly good humour, she could not prevent a slight degree of scorn from showing itself both in her look and manner, as she prepared to reply to this question. She had, however, not the least inclination to quarrel with Mr. Roberts, quite the contrary, and she therefore conquered her feelings sufficiently to answer without any appearance of rudeness.

"No, sir, she did not; and to tell you the truth, my poor dear Mr. Roberts," she added, after pausing a moment, "to tell you the truth, my dear, I certainly think that if she had, I must in justice to myself have refused her flatly, however well I might like the arrangement if brought about in a proper, ladylike manner. But for Lady Moreton to have addressed such a proposal to me would have been taking a most unwarrantable liberty-a liberty which I truly believe she would not have ventured to take with me for any consideration that could be offered her."

"Now then, my dear love, I must beg you to have the kindness to explain all this to me," replied Mr. Roberts, looking, as he felt, poor man, most completely out of his depth. "I cannot comprehend why her ladyship should be afraid of paying you such a very flattering compliment."

I am

"A compliment, indeed! But it is no good to be vexed at such nonsense. Now don't fancy I am angry, Mr. Roberts; I do assure you not; only it is impossible to help being surprised at such very odd notions. The truth I suspect is, my dear, that you do not yet quite appreciate the place I hold in society. It is not merely the being this man's wife, or another man's wife, which settles this point for one. It may do so indeed when the woman is a mere ordinary sort of character, with no particular abilities to distinguish her from the rest of the world; but I should have thought, Roberts, that you had known me well enough by this time to be aware that I lay claim to other sorts of distinction besides that of being your wife, my dear."

"To be sure, Mrs. Roberts, I do know it, and I don't see very well how I could help knowing it," he replied, with the very least little twinkle of a smile in his eyes; "but spite of that, I don't quite catch the reason why your dear friend, Lady Moreton, should be so terribly afraid to speak to you, especially when what she had got to say was so very agreeable."

"It is quite in vain, my dear friend," returned Mrs. Roberts with a sigh, "totally and entirely in vain, to attempt making you comprehend all the little niceties of high-bred manners and of high-bred people. Lady Moreton's proposing to me that her niece should come and make part of my family would be something absolutely insulting. No, sir, if we do make up our minds to think such a thing desirable, the only possible way in which it can be brought about will be by my offering to do them this great and most important service as a friend; confessing however, frankly, at the same time, that one great reason for my doing so, independent of my affection for them, arises from my wish of securing for my own dear girls so eligible a companion. This is the way, sir, in which these sort of things are always done among real ladies and gentlemen."

"Yes, to be sure, my dear, I see it all now," replied Mr. Roberts, laughing. "There is a proverb, you know, that goes to it exactly, the truth is not at all times to be spoken.' Do it exactly in your own way, and then, of course, I know it will be well done. Upon my word and honour I would not interfere with your management of the business for any thing that you could give me. Do it your own way, my dear, from

first to last."

"That is all that I ever wish or desire, my dear Mr. Roberts," said she, with a pleasant, good-humoured smile, "and depend upon it I will set about the negotiation with all convenient speed, and, if nobody interferes with me, I don't feel the least doubt but that I shall bring it to a favourable termination. Meanwhile, my dear, I must trouble you to give me another check for a hundred pounds. There are a good many little things that dear Edward and the girls cannot do any longer without, besides several small housekeeping bills that the people neglected to send in last week. Here's your check-book, dear, and here's the pen and ink."

Why, my dear Mrs. Roberts, this is the seventh. It is, upon my word and honour, Mrs. Roberts, this is the seventh hundred I have drawn for since we left London," replied the frightened husband. "It is a great comfort, to be sure, the knowing that you pay ready money for every thing, but yet, my dear, you must see that it will be impossible for us to go on in this way. I can't bear to refuse you, as long as I know there is any money left. But, upon my word and honour, we must not go on so."

"And pray, sir, what have I been saying to you for the last hour? Have I not been showing you as plain as that the sun is in the heaven, that I do not mean to go on in this way; or, in other words, that what I do mean is to make your poor little income half as much again as it is at present? Have you understood me, Mr. Roberts, or have you not ?" said his wife, with some appearance of displeasure.

Mr. Roberts sighed; but he took up the pen, did with it as he had been desired to do, and only said as he presented the check to his lady, "I hope, my dear, that it won't be inconvenient to my lady to let the young heiress come to us immediately.'

LIGHTS AND SHADES

IN THE LIFE OF A

GENTLEMAN ON HALF PAY.

BY THE AUTHOR OF "STORIES OF WATERLOO."

No. IV.

Sketches of Character-A ca sa in Connaught-I fall in Love-The Three

Marys.

How shall I dote on her with more advice,
That thus without advice begin to love her.

Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA.

I HAD frequent opportunities of meeting my new acquaintance, the sub-sheriff, and the more I conversed with him the more I was struck with the keenness of his observation which enabled him to penetrate into men's characters with an accuracy that seemed almost inconceivable. I persuaded him to dine with me at the mess, and next morning he sketched some of my companions as faithfully as if he had been seven years in the regiment himself.

"Well, Mr. Egan," I said, "your intuitive acquaintance with human character is remarkable. Come, I must test your abilities still further. The gentleman who sat beside you, Captain Lloyd-"

"Is a prosy ass," returned Shawn Cruchadore. "He told me a pointless story twice over within an hour. His budget is but lightly supplied, I fancy-and in one day's acquaintance he would get shot of his stock in trade, and as I suspect, it would prove but an indifferent assortment."

"Kem acu," I exclaimed.

"Speak English, if you please," returned the sub-sheriff. "My classical education was rather neglected in my youth. I don't regret it, however, for under God, I am inclined to think my ignorance has saved me from the gallows. I had all the inclination to be one of the greatest rogues in Connaught, but want of ability obliged me to remain the honest man I

am."

I smiled at the declaration.

"Honest!" I exclaimed, "always barring horse-flesh, and Easter offerings."

"Pish!" replied Mr. Egan; "when every thing was topsy-turvy in the world, why should not I have a pull ? and the priest's purse was only a perquisite of office. There was enough scraped afterwards together to bury him in style-and, for the honour of their own corps, the clergy would pass him through purgatory gratis."

Well, did you observe the gentleman who sat opposite ?" I inquired.

"To be sure I did. An old bilious brevet-major, who bothered me with a long rigmarole story of scrambling through a mud ditch, and

over a bamboo fence, into an inclosure which he called Fort Cornelius. You get that twice a-week from old orange peel, I suppose?"

"Another and decided hit," I answered. "One further question, and I have done; but this last you will find a puzzler. Did you observe a red-faced personage beside the brevet-major ?"

"Yes."

"He is our paymaster, and, until well advanced in life, he was a civilian. Can you guess what his former profession might be ?" "Easily," was the prompt reply.

"I doubt it, Mr. Egan."

"He was a pawnbroker."

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Right;-but ridiculous. You have been told this fact; you never could have guessed it."

"No, upon the honour of the under representative of majesty. I might have set him down a butcher, or the landlord of a roadside inn, but for the peculiar expression of a sort of 'I'm-not-to-be-done," which he was eternally throwing cautiously around him. Unconsciously, and when otherwise unoccupied, he played with the forks, balanced them on the point of his fingers, and frequently examined the hall marks on the spoons. But one circumstance at once told me what his former calling had been. You remember a raw youth who was pushing a snuff-box round the table, with an assurance that it had been in his family since a year or two before the deluge. Show it here,' growled old red face, out came his spectacles, and, instead of examining the lid, he looked only at the bottom. Humph! hundred years old! It's not twenty. Sixpence an ounce, additional duty, and there's the mark.' Phew! says I to myself, that lad knows the difference between a salt-spoon and a fishslice. New or old,' returned the owner, in high dudgeon, 'I was offered twenty guineas for it." The old fellow dandled it on the tips of his fingers for a second. "They wouldn't give you four upon it,' he muttered. He's a pawnbroker,' says I."

"A most true conclusion," I returned. "As you have favoured me with correct sketches of my absent friends, would you oblige me with a slight pencilling of my own character ?"

"Oh! cead fealteagh!" replied Mr. Egan. "You're no puppy, or you shouldn't have had the honour of my acquaintance.

You aren't a

bore; or I wouldn't have been bothered with you. You're well enough in your way, can troop a guard, ride decently to hounds, shoot snipes, sing a passable song, play billiards, and hold your own with men, but-" and Shawn Cruchadore made a pause.

"Go on."

"Well, my dear friend, like all this world beside, you're a fool after your own fashion. A pretty woman, and a little soft solder-and Mona

sin diaoul! You're done to a turn in ten minutes."

"Whence do you draw this inference of my sentimental weakness?" I inquired.

"The

"Just from a little observation," replied the sub-sheriff. morning of our interview with the painter's wife, or baronet's daughter, or whatever you call her, I remarked you closely. Every tear she shed, in went your hand into the pocket of your jacket, and at every sigh, you were groping for your purse. But there goes one of my body guard; a

gentleman who, before a twelvemonth, will ornament society at Botany Bay. I wonder what the rascal wants? Some job for me. Don't go for a minute. I'll be back in a twinkling."

Whatever the business was that the gentleman predestined to settle in Australia had with his employer, it was speedily transacted. As Patsey Lynch made his communication, Mr. Egan occasionally elevated his shoulders, or responded by a monosyllable, or a movement of the head. At the conclusion of a brief audience Patsey gathered the skirts of his cota more under his left arm, and started off at an easy trot, while Mr. Egan bestowed his benison on the mission, “Reeigh!" (run!) "may the devil speed ye!" and immediately rejoined me.

"Your aide-de-camp is off in a hurry," I said.

"And though he has sixteen miles to travel he'll keep the pace you see, unless with a minute's halt at the door of a poteeine house for refreshment, which will be about as many times as there are miles in the journey."

"Is the business urgent?"

"Particularly," responded the sub-sheriff.

"Life and death, I suppose."

"Not exactly so momentous as that," replied Shawn Cruchadore; "the story is easily told. I have a friend and annuitant who, on a fair average, receives as many law processes yearly as would paper his drawing-room. His house is beautifully situated-not exactly as a painter would call it for devil a thing the eye can rest upon for miles but brown heath and mud cabins."

"And in what consists the beauty of the situation?"

66

Why, it's on the verge of the three counties-into one you could pitch a potato, and from the drawing-room window, you could shoot a man with a pocket-pistol in the other."

"Still the beauty of the situation remains a mystery."

"Ah! then I must explain it," said the representative of majesty. "Down comes a writ-plaintiff in person hands it-of course I'm ready -defendant desperate-just step home to load my pistols-(devil a pistol I would carry in my pocket for a five-pound note, for fear it would go off by accident)-Patsey, in the meantime, tucks his cota more under his arm, and away he goes-and by the time we arrive, the doors are locked, and cloot or horn is not on the bailiwick, but grazing quietly across the stream, and carefully herded, for fear they should come back to their native county until after our departure."

"And is this expedition-"

"Just what I have described-A hungry attorney bought a bill of Big Malachi's-two hundred pounds-for which he gave twenty-heaped every expense he could upon it-motions of court-substituted serviceand here, he's fresh with an execution. For fear I wouldn't do my duty -the Lord forgive him for the suspicion!-he's come down himself-and I'm at his service as soon as the innkeeper has got a collar stuffed, and a trace mended. Well, Patsey will be three hours before us, and I'll be greatly surprised if we find any thing with four legs on the place, unless it be a straggling hound, or the cat at the gate-house."

"I should like to see the attorney after--"

"He has found nulla bona returned to his writ," exclaimed Shawn Sept.-VOL. LXXII. NO. CCLXXXV.

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