CONNUBIAL JOYS IN PERSPECTIVE-FILIAL INFUENCE, MATERNAL INDULGENCE, AND SISTERLY CONFIDENCE. IT would be very idly superfluous to describe the satisfaction of Mrs. Hartley on learning, upon her return from Lady Stephen's party, what had passed between Sir James Ridley and her daughter Margaretta during her absence. All this maternal gladness, and womanly triumph at success, shall be passed sous silence, while the narrative goes on to relate the more substantial consequences which arose from it. If the mother and her favourite daughter had heretofore been addicted to tête-à-tête breakfastings, when the pleasure of them consisted wholly in the discussion of hopeful possibilities, it will be readily believed that the present position of affairs would render such a meeting a thousand times more delightful still; and accordingly, on the following morning, the arrangement which has been before described as so agreeable to the whole family, again took place;-that is to say, Mrs. Hartley and Margaretta enjoyed the shady retreat of the boudoir, Caroline the dolce reposo of her bed, and Constance and her friend Penelope the undisturbed possession of the drawing-room. "Your conduct, my dearest love, through the whole of this business, has been most admirable, and justifies the hope that, with the noble fortune which your beauty and your talents have secured to you, your future existence will be a model of what the life of a welleducated young woman of fashion ought to be. I congratulate you, my darling child, with all the virtuous pride and tender fondness of a happy mother, rewarded for all her care!" Such were the sounds that, in the crested pride of Mrs. Hartley, were uttered as she first met her daughter, who, having received the maternal salute with the philosophical sort of composure which made so essential a part of her character, replied, "Thank you, mamma. I am very glad it is done, I promise you; for he's such an uncommon fool, and so utterly devoid of everything like the spirit and feeling of a man, that it has not only been very dull work, but very difficult too, I do assure you. For though the idea of doing me this immense Sept. 1841.-VOL. XXXII.-NO. CXXV. B honour has been gradually working its way into his obtuse brain from the first hour, I believe, that I set about the business, it was impossible to be sure that he would ever have had the courage to bestow the inestimable treasure of his person upon any mortal woman. However, thank Heaven, he has committed himself, and cannot possibly retract. So now, dear mamma, let us forget him as much as we possibly can, and talk about the things I must order, and the horses, and the carriages, and all that. You must remember, if you please, that though the most important part of the business is done, we must take good care not to let him get the bit between his teeth, which he has an extremely good inclination to do, I am certain, from his behaviour to his sister. I declare to Heaven, mamma, that if his estate were double, and that he could put a coronet, instead of a bloody hand, upon my carriage, I would not marry him if I thought I could not continue to manage him." "Fear nothing, my dearest love, on that score," replied her mother. "The same masterly mind which has already seen through all the complicated little machinery of his contemptible character, and has so managed its springs and its screws as to make him do precisely the thing which it seemed to be the great object of his life to guard against, has no great reason to fear that, as power strengthens, means of using it will decrease. He may, perhaps, be naturally stubborn, but he is a fool, Margaretta; whilst you, dearest, are firm, with tact and talent to make him hate all he loves, and love all he hates, if such be your will." "Ainsi soit il," replied the young lady. "But now, mamma, for goodness' sake tell me what I am to do about clothes. You are so constantly employed à chanter misère, that I give you my honour I am terrified lest you should not be able to raise the sum necessary. With less than five hundred pounds, I neither can nor will attempt to carry the thing through. Were I in love, you know, mamma, it would be quite a different sort of business; but I would a great deal rather make up my mind not to marry at all just at present, than marry such an animal as this without the comfort of having a few nice things at setting off." The complexion of Mrs. Hartley was a little heightened in colour by this speech. She had made up her mind, notwithstanding the unfortunate circumstance of her having the family fortunes entirely at her command, to raise the sum of three hundred pounds for the "joyful occasion" at present under discussion; but the addition to this so stoutly demanded by her daughter rather startled her. She remembered, however, the firmness upon which she had just complimented the young lady, and replied, with great gentleness, "I had hoped, dearest, that three hundred might have done, especially as I intend to take care that an ample allowance for pin-money shall make part of the settlement. I therefore thought, my love, that what with the presents we shall get out of him, and by taking care that nothing was bought excepting what would contribute to your appearance, we could have done very well with that sum—and, alas! though I never, since she was able to ask it, have refused my darling Margaret anything without a pang, and at this moment every indulgent feeling is, of course, multiplied a thousand fold, yet, with all this, my dearest girl, I know not what on earth I can do to raise such a sum as you mention." "Where there is a will there is a way, mamma. The proverb is somewhat musty, but not the less true for that. And as to getting presents out of him, I do assure you that, though I am certainly not quite in despair as to recovering the power of exerting myself again by-and-bye, I am positively weary and worn out with the unceasing series of exertions I have been making, in order to persuade my golden calf that black was white, and hatred love. In this I have succeeded, and now I positively must repose a little. Whatever you think you may be able to do in the way of making him fancy it a fine thing to be generous, pray do it-I have not the slightest objection ; but as for me, I shall do nothing beyond giving a few hints about the carriage, or a word or two, perhaps, about the house ;-I will not go begging or coaxing for decent clothes to wear, that you may depend upon, mamma-and, in one word, which may just as well be spoken first as last, unless you can let me have five hundred pounds down for my wedding clothes, I will not marry Sir James Ridley at all." Mrs. Hartley knew her favourite daughter well, and would hardly have carried matters to the dangerous extremity of refusal if her demand had been double. As it was, she got up, kissed her forehead, declared that she was perfectly right in being steady upon a point to which she judiciously attached so much importance, vowed she would rather sell her plate than disappoint her, and then led the conversation to squares, and gardens, and terraces, for the delightful purpose of ascertaining which would furnish a residence most consonant to the taste of her darling child, hinting, meanwhile, that she thought she might herself have some little influence in leading her future son-inlaw to select what she should recommend. Whether it were that Constance felt particularly anxious that morning respecting the affairs of Penelope, or that she felt no inclination to discuss her own, may be doubtful; but whatever the cause, the two friends no sooner found themselves seule à seule over their breakfast-table, than the affianced bride began talking to the longbetrothed maiden on the painful subject of the difficulties which were still likely, for a period most sadly indefinite, to keep her and her beloved asunder. Poor Penelope, despite all her efforts to prevent it, shed tears over this almost hopeless theme, till, ashamed of the gloom she was bringing to mix with the happier prospects of her friend, she assumed an air of cheerfulness, and said, " By-the-bye, Constance, I am rather sorry that fate and fortune did not give you Mr. Fitzosborne for an adorer, instead of Mr. Mortimer; for albeit he is no poet, he is, as I happened to learn last night, nephew to one who has great interest, or rather great authority, in the only direction where poor Markham can look for aid; so, if it had happened that he had fallen in love with you, who knows but that we might have been married together? I am quite sure, Constance, that my elderly young ladyhood is becoming every day more irksome both to mamma and Margaret, and I feel certain that the addresses of CAPTAIN Markham might be accepted with very little opposition." Constance listened to this with great attention; and though she certainly did not make up her mind to join in Penelope's wish respecting Mr. Fitzosborne, it occurred to her as possible that some occasion might arise in which, slight as was her acquaintance with him, she might so state the case of Markham as to interest the great man's nephew in his favour. But the hope was much too vague to be spoken of to one whom it concerned so nearly, and Constance therefore turned the conversation into another channel by asking Penelope what she thought of Mr. Marsh's devoted attention to Mrs. Hartley. "Were it not," she said, "that I believe your mother to be much too wise a woman to marry a man more than a dozen years her junior, I should really begin to suspect something." "And did I not think it impossible that any young man so wealthy as Mr. Marsh is said to be would bestow himself upon a middle-aged lady with three grown-up daughters, I should suspect too," replied Penelope. "But it is too absurdly unlikely to think of for a moment. I therefore conclude that Mr. Marsh is one of those cautious men of money, who prefer the safe honour of fluttering round a handsome widow, not quite young enough to be irresistible, to the danger of raising hopes in the tender bosoms of her portionless daughters.-But, mercy on me! there is mamma's voice already! What can make her come down so soon?" Penelope was not mistaken; it was her mother's voice which she had heard; and what was more extraordinary still, the person she addressed, and who was emerging with her at so unusually early an hour from the boudoir beatitudes of confidential gossip, and a committee on toilet ways and means, was no other than her sister Margaretta, who very rarely, if permitted to breakfast up stairs, thought it necessary to appear below till the carriage was announced as ready to receive herself and her unblemished dress. That "out of the fulness of the heart the mouth speaketh," is a truth incontrovertible; and whether this fulness proceed from joy or sorrow; from melting affection or from swelling vanity; from the longing to proclaim a triumph, or detail a grief; the necessity for the outpouring is the same, and can seldom be resisted, as long as ears in any way fitted to be recipients are within reach. Few young ladies were less disposed to trouble an elder sister by confidential disclosures than Miss Margaretta Hartley; but no sooner had she settled with her mamma the knotty point respecting the five hundred pounds, than that épanchement de cœur of which we have been speaking came so strongly upon her, as to make her start up and exclaim, "Now, mamma, let us go down stairs, and announce the news in the drawing-room. I confess I feel some little curiosity to see how Miss Constance will take it. She has always taken especial good care to let me know, that, in comparison to the sage Penelope, she considered me as little better than a figure in a puppet-show-and now, perhaps, I may appear to her of rather more importance. Perhaps the erudite Penelope herself, too, may be brought to the wholesome conviction, that when a decent amount of thousands per annum are |