THE PRETTY BUTCHERESS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 13, Issue 1012, 9 January 1869, Page 3

THE PRETTY BUTCHERESS.

(From " Cli&m r jors's Journal " for October.)

IS EIGHT CHAPTEiIS. — CHAP. IV.

Nelly hart been rightly informed as to the whereabouts of the Rev. Mr. Benshaw. He had left home immediately after dinner to pay a ■ visit to Mr. Straddle, cab-driver, who lived on the first floor of No, G Stamford Court, "Warring-ton street. Let tis go back a couple of hours, and stand by Mr. Renshaw as he takes hold of and pulls twice (such is the etiquette of Stamford Court) the second from the bottom of about six brass knobs, which form the nseful as well as ornamental additions to the hither ends of the wires which communicate with the bells which summon the inmates of No. 6. The Rev. Mr. Renshaw is about thirty, stands about five feet nine, is strongly built, wears black whiskers, beard, and moustaches, and has remarkably bright black eyes. His dress, if it were not for his white tie, would not mark his profes- I sion ; he has on dark gray trousers, and such a: black frock-coat and black cloth waistcoat as might be worn by a gentleman of any or no profession. There is in his appearance neither starch nor unction ; and his thick-soled boots, his oaken stick, and gloveless hands seem to betoken that he is given to pedestrian exercise. His expression is a little stern ; but there comes into his eyes now and then a twinkle that tells both of humor and kindliness. So, such a man haying been kept waiting the period which is fashionable in. Stamford Court, the door was at length opened by our old friend, Mrs. Straddle, who exclaimed : "Lor, Mr. Renshaw, sir. and me not cleaned myself!" "How are you, Mrs. Straddle V asked Renshaw, walking into the passage : " and how is your husband to-night ?" "Well, sir, he seem a little comfortable, thank 'cc kindly. "Will ye step up, sir, please ? though we 're all of a muck." "Certainly, I will, if I may. I want to have a chat with Straddle." And without more ceremony, the Rev. Mr. Renshaw followed Mrs. Straddle up stairs and into a room, the atmosphere of which was not siich as Miss Florence Nightingale would have recommended an invalid to breathe. If there were not " seventy-fivo different stinks, all well defined/ such as Coleridge discovered in Cologne, allowance should be made for the size of the room compared with the city. "What could be done in the odoriferous line in so small a place, had been done ; but the most prevalent odours just now were those which proceeded from damp linen hanging upon cords all over the room to dry, and from the fumes of tobacco. The latter was rather agreeable than otherwise ; for the tobacco which the invalid, as he sat, wrapped in flannel, near the fire, was smoking was really good, as the Rev. Mr. Renshaw at once discovered and announced, saying: "Ah ! Straddle, how are you? That's uncommonly good tobacco you are smoking ; I should like a pipe of it." " That you shall have, sir.— Missus, get a pipe for Muster Renshaw. Excuse me gittin' up, sir ; I'm that bad with the rheumatics" " Don't say a word of excuse, Straddle : I'm sorry to see you suffering so much ; but I'm glad you can enjoy your pipe." "Yes, sir, thank' ce, I find a whiff o' baccy does me ns much good as anything. Pray, light up, sir." "I never— tasted — bettor — stuff than this," said Renshaw between his first few puffs. ""Where do you get it?" "Ah I" answered Straddle, with a sigh, a nod, and a knowing look, "J couldn't afford to git such baccy as this, sir ; it's some I've 'ad by me ever so long, and it was given to me by a wonderful nice gent by the name o' Fantom." "Fantom! What! George Fantom?" cried Renshaw. " I dun know what his Christun name may be, sir ; Fantom, esquire, toe call 'im.'' " What sort of a man is ho ?" "Well, I should say about a twelvestone man, sir, or not so much — may be he'd ride twelve stone and a half" "Ah !" interrupted Renshaw, laughing ; " but> is he fair or dark V " Fair. I'll warrant him as fair a genelman as ever walked ; nothing dark about 'im, sir." "I mean, what colour is his hair?" "Well, sir, I wouldn't say a word agen a nice genehnan like him ; but speakin' to you as a parson, sir, as must 'avo the truth, I should say it was reddish ; not carrots, you know, sir, but a little reddish." " Does he live in the Temple ?'' "Ay, that he do, sir." " Then it must be George Fantom, and I know him very well indeed." "Do you, now, sir? Well, lam glad o' that," said Straddle chuckling. . "But how did you make his acquaintance ?" Straddle at this question was seized with a fit of laughing 1 , which caused him in his rheumatical condition no small pain, and brought down upon him a remonstrance from Mrs. Straddle, who remarked, with the testiness of affection: "Drat you, Straddle, ain't your bile and rheumatics enough, without making 'em wuss? I b'lievo you'd laugh at somo things if you was on your dyin' bod, or if you was as bad with biles as the genehnan in the Bible, what scraped hisself with a oyster-shell or summut." Straddle, however, having recovered himself both from his laughter and his pain, said: "It was a rummy way, sir, of making friends — I runncd over "im." " Oh ! it was you, was it ?" asked Renshaw. " I knew ho had been run over by a cab, but I didn't know you did it." " Yes, sir, and this is 'ow it wero. I took up a fare at Waterloo Station to sot down at Konsin'ton. I'd got a protty fairish trot on as we come to the turnin' into the Strand, when I see a gent aswinging slowly along over the crossin 1 with 'is ''ands in 'is pockets, as easy as if ho was in a flowergarden. I 'oiler' cl out : <Hi!— hi — hi-i--i !' three or four times, makin' sure hod cut it, to get out o' the way ; but he didn't take no more notico than if I'd a bin a coster cryin' greens; and aforo I cud . pull up, the near wheel caught 'im in the quarters, and sent 'im a-spinnin' on to the kerb a good un. Ho was terrible shook, and 'ad the bark took off 'is chin and 'is legs, and his nose went a-blcedin' like a sheep's in a butcher's shop. In course, I stopped ; and my faro, which wero a genelman and no mistake, ho got out, and says : 'It warn't your fault, kebby ; and 'ore's my card, if you should want me to speak up for you aforo the beak :' and he put Muster Fantom, as was uncommon groggy, into my keb, and got Muster Fantom to say where he was to bo druv to, and got. in with 'im; and I druv 'em both to the Temple. Muster Fantom Avas queer still whon we got 'im 'omo ; but when I says : ' I 'ope you won't bo 'arcl on mo)' sir ; I don't think as it were my fault ; I kep' a'ollerin' out : Hi ! sir,' he laughed a little faintish, and, says ho : ' 'ow the devil,' .ho says (I bog pardon, Muster Renshaw, but that's what he said) — 'W the devil,' ho says, ' should I know you was a-speakin' tome? My name isn't 'Hi!' ho says; my name's Fantom.' Well, I give him my ticket, and ho says he can't speak to me no more jest then, but tells me to call on 'im next mornin' ; and I drnv off with the fare what give mo 'is card to Kensin'ton. Next mornin', I calls on Muster Fantom, and finds him pretty comfortable, ban-in' a black eye, and he says : ' Well, three*tho\isand-aiid-seYenteen ' (the mun-

ber o' my ticket, sir), 'I shan't 'aye you transported this time, for, to tell you the truth, I b'lieve it were my fault.' He were smokin' a pipe, and he ast me to 'avo one, and I did; and when I said what fust* class baccy it were, he give me a great packet oF it: and he ast me • about kebdrivin' and all that ; and I told 'im what 'arc! times it were, and I told 'im about the missus and the two children ; and when I were a-goin,' he says : ' Look '"ere ; you must be paid for loss of time ;' and he gives me five shillin's. Oh ! he's a rare good sort is Muster Fantom." "You are right there, Straddle," said Eenshaw earnestly. " And when he want a keb, sir, he al- ! ways look out for me and 'aye mine, if he can ; and he always 'aye 'is paper o' my little Billy, as is in the newspaperin' line out o' doors in Fleet Street ; and he often 'aye 'is boots cleaned by my little Jimmy, as is in the boot cleanin'. And Jimmyhe ain't one o' them lot dressed up in all sorts o' colours, and numbered like convic's, but independent like — Jimmy telled me as 'ow he were a-cleanin' Muster Fantom's boots one clay, and a sleek chap in a white tie (makin' -believe he were a parson, I dessay) come up and says to Muster Fantom : * Parding me, sir ; you'd be a-doin' a real service to a good cause if you'd employ the S'ciety's boys, and not them outsiders ;' and Muster Fantom says : ' Parding me, sir ; but I only know o' one S'ciety, and that's mankind ; and I objec'to makin' guys o' 'uman bom's, and ticketin' 'em like articles in a shop-winder ; and what's more, I don't see what right you 'aye to interfore with a lad as tries to get a 'onest livin', or with me;' and the sleek chap says : <No offence, sir, I 'ope ;' and Muster Fantom (a-workin' 'isself up, Jimmy says, like people as acts a play) shouts out quiet fierce : * Ay, but there is, and much offence too ;' and the sleek chap says : 'Oh !' and 'ooks it." " I am not sure that Mr. Fantom is quite right there," said Eenshaw. — "But I wanted to talk to you about other matters, Straddle. You find you have no difficulty with those tickets for coals and things ?" "No, sir, thankee. The missus says some of the folks is a little nasty sometimes about our not goin' to church." "Ah !" said Eenshaw seriously, " I wish you vjoulcl go to church ; but I don't think that ought to make any difference with respect to the tickets, or else they might look like a bribe." " I can't go now, sir," replied Straddle doggedly. "Certainly not," observed Eenshaw smiling. "And then," continued Straddle in a grumbling tone, "when I ain't laid up, I'm at work, and all my masters works kebs of a Sunday." " Still, your wife and children might go," rejoined Eenshaw, looking at Mrs. Straddle. "Me, sir!" exclaimed Mrs. Straddle in a shrill tone. "Well, I've bin, sir ; and I find, when I go in the mornin', I'm a thinkin' all the time whether they won't spile the dinner at the bake-'us ; and when Igo in the arternoon, I can't keep my eyes open ; and of a ovenin', the rector allus preach, and he make mo dream so frightful, I can't 'ardly do a bit o' washin' the next day. As for the children, they're that frightened o' the beadle, you can't get them to go alone ; but they go to Sunday school reg'lar, and Miss Ellen (that's Miss Brentwood) have taught 'em their dooty towards G-od and their dooty towards their neighbour without missing a word." "If they never miss a word of these," said Eenshaw solemnly, and a little ironically, ' they will not come to any harm. — Do you read that Bible I gave you, Straddle ?" "No, sir," answered Straddle, with a shuffle, and in a surly tone ; "can't say as I do, sir ; I never were fond o' readin' myself. The missus, she take a spell at it sometimes : she give me and the children the story o' the genolman she were atalkin' of jest now as were so bad in the boils : it seemed suitable to my case. But some'ow it didn't appear to mo that he were so over and above patient ; he didn't cuss and swear exactly, but he throwed 'isself under the grate, and cussed the day he were born, and went on pretty stiff at 'is friends." Eenshaw smiled, and said : " Patient is used of a man at a hospital who does nothing but complain all day — isn't it?" "Why, yes, sir" answered Straddle, " and that allus seemed odd to me too. Patient ! says I ; why, 'c's a-bellering like a bull." "Words have more than one meaning sometimes," rejoined Eeeshaw ; "that is the reason, very often, why people get wrong ideas' Here Straddle, considering himself found fault with, burst; out saying : "It's onreasonable what the public thinks of keb-dri-vers. Keb-drivers, 'cordin' to them, is cheats, liars, and drunkards. I've got a awful rod face, I know, but if it's any kind o' drink it's tea, such as this 'ere as I'm adrinkin' now, I don't take a drop of sperrits not once a week when I'm in work. It's constitooshun and weather, that's what it is, the doctor says, make my face such a objec'. I know once, when I were workin' night-kob, and it were drefful cold weather, and I 'adn't took a fare since I come out, and I 'adn't 'ad anything t' eat, I jest took a little drop o' rum : and what wi' that and bein' numb o' cold, I fell asleep, and I tumbled off my keb ; and p'lice sworo I were drunk, cos I smelt o' rum, and the beak very nigh tuk away my licence. And then, when you ain't got chango, a young swell 'II say: "Come, kebby, I'll toss yer whether I give yer 'alf-a-crown or nothin' !" and me with a wife and family : and then they're nasty cos I won't toss. And the public b'lieves all keb-drivers is fightin'men, and young fellers up to their larks 'II want yor to go fust tip on the nose for a shillin.' I'm sure I never told a lie knowin'ly about my fare in my life, and many's the time I've proved the fore to be wrong 'issolf. And if yor do go to church, people breaks up away from yer (cos o' yer clo'es) as if you 'ad the cholery ; and the parson sends yer to the bottomless pit, and it's moro than flesh and blood can bear — it is, indeed, Muster Renshaw." Eonshaw listened attentively, without attempting any interruption, and was jxist going' to reply, when ho was startled by a violent ringing at the Straddles' boll, which hung just over his head. Mrs. Straddle dashed down to the door, returned almost immediately, and said breathlessly to Eenshaw: "Please, sir, there's Miss Ellen — Miss Brontwood and a gent wants to speak to you pcrtickler, and they won't cotno up." Eenshaw wished Straddle good night, hurried down, followed by Mrs. Straddle, and cried : "Why, Fantom! whatever is the meaning of this?— l beg your pardon, Miss Brentwood ; how do you do ? Can I be of any service to you ?" Fantom said quickly: "I'll explain another time ; but pray, go at once with Miss Brentwood : she will tell you on the way why we have come here for you." Eenshaw offered Nelly his arm as if she had been a lady of station, and prepared to go away with her, just stopping to say to Fantom : "Go upstairs with my friend Mrs. Straddle, and she will show you an old acquaintance of yours." Mrs. Straddle dropped Fantom a courtesy, and said : "If so be as you're Fantom, esquire, from the Temple, why, God bless you, sir ; and my old man, as is ill upstairs, would be jest glad to see you ; I b'lieve it 'ucl very nigh cure 'im." "I'm Fantom of the Temple, certainly," replied Fantom laughing J "and I will so

up with pleasure ; but I'm no doctor, and I never worked a cure yet. Shew me the way ; that's all." v '' Fantom followed Mrs. Straddle, who threw open her room-door, saying; "Straddle, my man, ere's Fantom, esquire, come to see yer." Straddle made a desperate effort; to jump out of his chair, but his rheumatism was too much for him, and he sank back with an exclamation of pain as Fantom, whose eyes were widened with suiprise, shouted : • " What ! three-thousand-and-seventeen ! Why, what's 1 the matter? Has somebody been running over you ?" "Sarvant, sir, sarvant," chuckled Straddle, pulling his front hair, and looking as pleased as a child at a pantomime. * " No, sir ; I answers to the name o' Hi ! sir. But do 'cc sit down> sir; Muster Eenshaw didn't mind sittin' on that cheer." " Of course, I will sit down," said Fantom, proceeding to do so; "and what's more, I will take a pipe of your tobacco, if you'll give me one." "Yourn, sir, yourn," rejoined Straddle joyously; "it's yourn; and Muster Eenshaw have been a-smokin' of it and enjoyin' of it in that there pipe." " Then I shall take his pipe," said Fantom ; " I like a pipe that has been smoked. But you can't be much of a smoker if you have any of that tobacco still left." "Ah, sir," replied Straddle, "I kep' it laid by for Sundays when I were well, and I smoke it now I'm ailin' as a sort of treat." So Fantom sat and smoked, and pumped out the story of Straddle's sufferings, and Mrs. Straddle's hardships, until Billy and Jimmy came in for the night, when he found it advisable, what with the atmosphere and the restraint his presence evidently was upon the two boys, to retire. He had, however, managed to make Mrs. Straddle's heart a little lighter by engaging her at a trifle more than the usual terms in the place of his drunken laundress ; for Mrs. Straddle found she could "do for" him as well as perform her work at the laundry when she "washed." It was only the washing of her own household which was done at home, and which was not extensive, as could be guessed from the scanty supply of linen which hung drying on the cords in the room. CHAPTER V. Nelly, in a very few words, told Eenshaw all that was necessary to account for her having Fantom as an escort, and why she had sought out Eenshaw even in the abode of the Straddles, saying with a sob : " I i know, sir, you would forgive me ; poor j little Bob was so anxious to see you." " I should not easily have forgiven you," rejoined Eenshaw, greatly moved, "if you had not sought me out, or sent for me, wherever I was. Poor little fellow 1 does he suffer much ?" " No, sir ; not at all : the doctor told us he would most likely feel no more pain ; but that he could not last until morning." " And does the little man know his end is so near ?" "Yes, sir; he begged the doctor to tell him ; and when he had been told, he lay quite still and silent for some minutes, with his eyes closed, and then he opened them again, looking more bright and happy than I ever saw him, and said in a whisper : ' They've prepared a place for me.' " Here poor Nelly broke down again ; and no more was said until they arrived at Nelly's home. They were admitted by the private door, and went straight up-stairs to such a room as no one would have dreamed of finding in Eastminster Eoad. It was lofty, and had two windows, each reaching to within a foot and a half of the floor, so that as much light as possible was thrown into the room. Up the sides and along the top of each window, creepers had been trained to grow on the outside, and each window-sill had its box of fresh-looking flowers. The window-hangings were of tasteful stuff, and tastefully hung ; and in the space between the two windows was a very elegant piano. Two cages, in each of which there was a singing-bird, hung, one from the top of each window ; on a beautifully covered table stood a large aquarium, surrounded by minor ornaments, in the form of vases, churches which could be lit up at night by candles placed inside them, and similar things, such as boya delight in ; by photograph albums, and by books; a few easy-chairs were set here and there ; a luxurious-looking couch was placed against one of the walls, at right angles to the wall in which the windows were ; and a thick carpet deadened the sound of the heaviest footfall. In an alcove opposite the windows was a little iron bedstead ; and a door close by the head of the bedstead opened into a little scantily furnished room, where Nelly slept, to be near her brother. I On the iron bedstead, unencumbered by curtains, was a water-bed, and on the water-bed lay, covered up to the chest by" the whitest and softest of sheets and counterpane, a little boy about twelve years old. His face was lovely with the light just dawning upon him from another world; but it was pinched withal, and deadly pale. His little hands, white as alabaster, and cruelly thin, were playing idly with the pattern worked on the counterpane ; and he every now and then cast an eager glance towards the door near the foot of his bed. On one side of his pillow sat his father, and on the other his mother ; but no sound was hoard except when either father or mother asked him if he wanted anything, and then he merely shook his head with a grateful smile. Suddenly the door ho had been watching was gently opened, and he gave a sigh of relief and pleasure as he saw Nelly enter with Mr, Eenshaw. A silent greeting passed between Eenshaw and the elder Brentwoods, who made way for him and Nelly near the pillow. The little thin white hands were soon round Nelly's neck, as she stooped down, and a sweet low voice, very low but very clear, said : " Thank you, thank you, dearest Nell ; I knew you had gone to fetch him." And then the sweet low voice said, in answer to Eenshaw's gentle caress and cordial, "God bless you my boy, " — "Thank you, sir ; I wanted you to say that to me once more before I die : I like so much to hear you' say it ; but," he added, earnestly, "they have prepared a place for me." "I haven't a doubt of it," said Eenshaw, solemnly. " But is there anything in particular you wisli to say to me V "If you please, sh\" " Tell me what it is, then. Do you wish to be alone with mo ?" " 0 no, sir ; lam so happy with father and mother, and Nelly and you." " Then tell me what you have to say." "First, sir: is there anything wrong in my calling my canaries Huz and Buz? They aro brothers, you know." "No, no, my child; why should there be ?" " Well, they are Bible names, sir; and I was afraid But as you say there was no harm, and as I am sure I didn't mean any harm, I shall not say any more about it. Then I wanted to say, sir, that it's six years since the great ox trampled upon me and tossed me, and I've been lying here on that sofa ever since" "Ah ! my dear boy, you have had a severe trial" "Oh ! it isn't that, sir ; I mean all those six years Hither and mother have been so good to me." " My God, my poor boy," sobbed Brentwood, "don't break my heart by talking like that ;" and Mrs. Brentwood could do nothing but stroke the little one's head and weep speechlessly. "And Nelly," the sweet low voice went on, " hag done nearly everything for me all

tljose years ; and all the flowers, and my canaries, came from her; and nearly all her spare time has been spent in playing to me and singing to me, and reading to me, and teaching me to read ; and though lam a poor helpless little boy, I know she will feel so lonely when lam gone ; and I want to ask you, please, sir, to be kind to father and mother, as you have been to me, and to love Kelly as much as you can : will you, sir?" He held with one hand one of his weeping sister's hands, and, in his earnestness, took with his other one of Renshaw's hands, and placed it upon Nelly's, saying, pleadingly : "Oh ! will you, sir?" "Yes, yes, my boy; you may depend upon it I will," replied Renshaw, as he and Nelly instinctively withdrew their hands, without, however, any look of consciousness. "Thank you, sir," said the sweet low voice, adding: "you made me a little prayer soon after you first came to see me about two years ago, and I always say it at night, but I like to hear yousay it best : will you say it, sir, and let me listen ?" Renshaw complied ; , and the boy's lips moved voicelessly in accompaniment. Afterwards he said: "Nell, will you play my favourite hymn? and we can all join in singing the first and last verses." They sang very softly, Sun of my Soul, ilwu Saviour dear; and the low sweet voice was less tremulous than the other voices, but when they reached "Abide with me when night is nigh," it ceased to be heard at all. ■ There was no struggle ; but the spirit of thejighild had gone quietly out of him. S(fßenshaw stooped and kissed the still warm face, and left the bereaved alone with their dead.

CHAPTEE VI.

The next evening, Fantom called on Renshaw, and found him at home. Eenshaw was a curate, but a curate of a peculiar kind; a curate whose rector would have been afraid of him if he hadn't been on excellent terms with him. Curates are generally men who have not taken very good degrees at the university, and who have little or no money beyond their stipends ; they do not, therefore, very often inspire their rectors with awe. But Renshaw was a man who had taken an excellent degree, who was fellow of his college, and had therefore some three hundred a year. besides his stipend, and who liad taken a curacy in a populous and not vexy. reputable parish, that he might have some hard work to do, and some definite object to achieve. At college, he had been not only a great scholar, but also . a great athlete ; and so he brought to his clerical labours not only his natural mental abilities, which were great, and his acquired learning, which was ample, but which no one knew better than he how to keep in the background until it was wanted, but also an excellent stock of physical power, that stood him in good stead; for he would join in the athletic sports of his parishioners, and, by his prowess, gained influence of an extraordinary kind. Moreover, he would smoke a pipe with one man, drink a glass of beer with another, take a cup of tea with another, and talk with all about their pursuits and difficulties ; never talking mere cant, but never omitting an opportunity of giving sound advice, and pointing out plainly that to be careless of another world because this world goes ill with you is mere petulance, and as foolish as to cut your ship adrift from its last holding-anchor because all your other anchors have given way. His rector, who was a gentleman and nothing more, having no pretensions to scholarship, intellectual power, zeal, or fervent piety, did not — understand him, but admired and liked him, and would as soon have thought of criticising his sermons as of interfering with his way of doing his parochial work. The rector, in fact, admitted in his own heart Renshaw's great superiority in -everything except age, and regarded him as already a bishop in everything but the name, costume, palace, and revenues, which were sure to come in time. Fantom and Renshaw had rowed in the same boat at the university, and had formed that close intimacy which often exists between men who have one vein as it were in common, and in other respects are as different as Jacob from Esau. Fantom, "though he had not been a reading man, had often displayed a quickness of apprehension and an elegance of taste which had commanded Renshaw's, admiration ; and he had a general dash and brilliancy in person, manner, and conversation which exercised almost a fascination ojerthe plainer but more profound and scholar. The two men sat, each in an aim-chair, on either side of a bright fire (for it was autumn and chilly), and smoked each a long clay pipe in silence. At length Renshaw said : " Part of your explanation I had last night from Miss Brentwood; the other part shews that you Bre as impulsive and rash as ever. Impulse is a ticklish thing : when it led you to send your fist, without explanation, into the ruffian's face, you did well to yield ; when it urged you into a butcher's shop to buy a chop of a pretty girl, you were rash to obey." " A thundering fool," assented Fantom cheerfully. "I know what's right, but only so; I never practise what I know. Isn't there something like that in the Psalms ?" _ " You know perfectly well what the lines are," said Eenshaw drily. "By the way," continued Fantom, " Miss Dixon asked me the other day what a drysalter was; and I said the !f saiins of David by Tate and Brady were the only dry-Psalter I knew anything about ; and she didn't take me at all, but said quite simply ifc couldn't be that, as she knew it was some sort of tradesman." "I wish you'd talk seriously," said Eenshaw. " Very well," assented Fantom humbly. "Touching your acquaintance with Miss Brentwood," said Eenshaw severely, " I wish from my heart you had never' made it. " I am almost inclined to wish so too ; but then, you know, it is too late to wish that. All I want now is to have your advice." Eenshaw reflected for a few moments, and then said bluntly : You can't marry her, Fantom." " I don't know about that. I' "Nonsense. You are very likely to come into your uncle's baronetcy and estates, and you would raise in — if not her and yourself— at anyrate her friends and your friends, and I don't know how many people, all kinds of ill feelings, such as envy, hatred, and malice. You should recollect that " property has its duties as well as its rights," and so has station. If you had already won her affections, I mighfc speak differently ; but as you aro only on the point of trying to win them, I ■ warn you, by the probability of future misery to you and yours, to her and hers, and of innumerable troubles, dimly foreseen, to make a great effort, and forbear. If it were I, now' " You ! Why, you're a much greater man than I shall ever be." ,;. -■■ , "Stuff! I am self-made and a parson. . Parsons and their wives have, or should have, duties different from those of lay „ , baronets and their wives ; and the very .7; wpm'an.who, as a parson's wife, would be ' jinosfc welcome everywhere^ from grandee :,; . Pi> peasant, and would do most good,

would, as a landed baronet's wife, run a risk of being unwelcome everywhere, and doing a great deal of harm. Besides, I am alone ; I have neither father nor mother, kith nor kin, ancestor nor inheritance ; if I marry, I simply give up my fellowship for a college living, where my wife and I would find enough to do, and sufficient society, though the high and mighty of the village (for I should wait for a rural vicarage) should despise us. But my opinion is, that a parson's wife is liked all the better, and can make her way better, if she be sufficiently well educated and lady-like, without being^accomplished, high-born, and superfine." " And has Miss Brentwood the qualifications you speak of?" asked Fantom in a peculiar voice. " I have known her," replied Eenshaw frankly, " for two years ; I have had good opportunities of observing her both at the Sunday-school and at home ; and I have no hesitation whatever in saying that she has." " But you don't think she is good enough for me ?" asked Fantom ironically. " Good enough, certainly ; fitted no." " What the devil is to be done, then P That affair last night, the little walk with her, and her sorrow, have made such an impression upon me that I can't get her out of my mind." " The devil," said Eenshaw quietly, "is just- what you have to keep out of the business ! I know you are not a heartless blackguard "— — " Thank you," interrupted Fantom emphatically. , "As you proved," Eenshaw went on calmly, " in the case of what you call the black-eyed bakeress, who was a vain little fool, and would have gone on to destruction, if you hadn't listened to your own good heart — and to me." " To you, I fear, chiefly, old fellow," said Fantom ; " I have no great dependence on my good heart. But what do you advise P ' "Look here," said Eenshaw. "My rector, old Dr. Dixon, whom you know very well, is going to spend a year abroad : he starts next week ; go with him and his family : I'm sure they will be delighted to have you ; and if you haven't changed your mind when you come back, we can talk over the matter again." "And Miss Brentwood may by that time have married a journeyman butcher — or a parson," said Fantom discontentedly. " I think not," observed Eenshaw coolly : " she will be too much afflicted by her little brother's death to dream of such a thing for some time to come ; and even if she have, you will have been relieved from all further trouble." " That's a cold-blooded way of putting it," said Fantom. " But I must be going now. Good night, old fellow ; I'll think over what you have said." In the end, it was arranged that Fantom should go abroad with the Dixons. He was, however, first of all taken by Eenshaw to the butcher's, where he received the thanks of Mr. and Mrs. Brentwood for his protection of their daughter ; and where Nelly bade him good-bye, and thanked him with such pretty ladylike warmth and modesty that he went away very disconsolate indeed. He did not fail, however, to arrange with Eenshaw that Mrs. Straddle should receive her weekly payments, notwithstanding the absence of her employer ; " for you know Mrs. Straddle," Fantom tried to say severely, " I shall expect you to keep my things in first-rate order, and to send me my letters (Mr. Eenshaw will help you) to the different post-offices, which I shall give you due notice of from time to time." CHAPTEE VII. It was the end of November, but the weather in Italy was lovelier than September yields to the " remote Britons." Dr. Dixon had gone out for a stroll ; and Fantom. sat with Miss Dixon and her sister Caroline at an open window, enjoying the balmy air, and watching the dances of the deep-blue waves, rosy tinted by the setting sun. " Caroline," said Miss Dixon suddenly, " do you see that girl with the pitcher P " "Yes. Eather an . unusual kind of beauty for this climate." " Does she remind you of anybody P " " N-n-no ; not that I can remember." " Not of the « fair gospeller P ' " " What ! Ellen Brentwood, the Sundayschool teacher P — Well, there is certainly some likeness." " She is not so beautiful as Ellen Brentwood," said Fantom decisively. " Oh ! " exclaimed Miss Dixon, with an i intonation of surprise, " do you know the ' fair gospeller,' Mr. Fantom P " " Slightly," answered Fantom briefly ; and Caroline Dixon observed him attentively as he tried to look absorbed in the view from the window. • f Through Mr. Eenshaw, I suppose ?" continued Miss Dixon, inquisitively. " Partly," replied Fantom, curtly. Hereupon, Miss Dixon, giving him one searching look, which he did not appear to notice, left the room upon household affairs; and Fantom and Caroline were alone. Caroline was a girl of two-and-twenty, upon whom the painters who were studying in the favourite abode of Pictura cast longing eyes, so excellent a model would she have made for him who wished to paint a Modesty — not a Bashfulness, for that is a very different thing. She was far from bashful, as her steady gaze and open expression shewed ; but her whole bearing, her unpretending but elegant dress, her ready but placid smile, her easy but measured motions, her natural and graceful attitudes, her air of tranquil confidence, spoke of the modest spirit within her. If there be an impalpable majesty which " doth hedge a king," there is an impalpable power which doth hedge a pure good woman ; and that is the soulborn modesty which exhales from and envelops her as with a protective mist. Caroline was not beautiful, but attractive ; refinement was written upon every lineament of her face ; and her delicacy, grace, and accomplishments would have done honour to a princess. All this, for the first time, now struck Fantom as he turned to her and asked abruptly : " What do you think of Ellen Brentwood ?" "Do you wish me to describe her anatomically, as they do a gorilla ?" said Caroline, laughing and slightly blushing. " No. Do you think her pretty P" " More than that — beautiful," answered Caroline candidly. "Do you know anything about her education P I have seldom spoken to her, and then for a very short time ; but she struck me as being better educated and more ladylike than you would have expected a girl of her class to be." " I have seen a great deal of her at the Sunday-school and at her own house, for I used to go occasionally to see her poor little brother. But, as papa says, we cannot very well mix on equal terms with persons in the Brentwoods' position ; for you see we could not pick and choose without causing jealousy and enmity ; otherwise, I should desire no more ladylike an acquaintance than Ellen Brentwood. She is not accomplished ; but so far as a plain English education goes, I believe her to be superior to nine ladies out of ten : she plays prettily, and sings simple things very sweetly; she is sincerely religious ; and she is a charming, grateful, affectionate, warnvkearted little soul."

" She would make a good parson's wife, I should think," said Fantoni half inquiringly. "Excellent," answered Caroline warmly, "if he did not affect—or, to speak more like a clergyman's daughter, if his duties did not throw him into— society where prejudice against his wife's parentage and connections might damage his influence and her happiness." "You do not think she could get on in society ?" " I think she could ; but society would not allow it. Society would put obstacles in her way, which she, not having been born with the best means of overcoming them, could only destroy by a method which so gentle and simple a creature would not and could not employ. But, pray, have you any particular parson in your eye ? " she added smiling, " I have in both my eyes at present," answered Fantoni, looking at her meaningly, "something far more attractive than any parson. It is delightful to know, what I never could have believed on hearsay, that it is possible for a beautiful girl to have full justice done her by one of her own sex." " Eeally, you seem to have a very favorable opinion of our sex," said Caroline with a smile. /-; " I have now," replied Fantom, emphatically ; and at that moment Dr, Dixon I entered, the tete-a-tete was ended, and the conversation was changed. That night, before he slept, Fantom thought a great deal about Caroline ; and weighed her in the balances, and found her wanting very little of the proper weight. At the same time Nelly's image became slightly obscured. Every day, Fantom discovered some new point of excellence in Caroline ; every night he weighed her in the balances, and found her nearer and nearer to the proper weight. And every night Nelly's image waxed fainter and fainter. At last, when the travelling-party was on the point of returning home, for the year had all but expired, it was evident that Caroline had been weighed in the balances and found more than equal to her weight in gold and other precious things, for the image of sweet Nelly was quite concealed by the interposition of a figure " clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful," and wearing a wreath of orange-blossoms. Poor Mrs. Straddle's engagement might be considered to be over. CHAPTER VIII. It was with unalloyed pleasure that Eenshaw read in the paper the announcement of Fantom's marriage : "At the British Embassy, . . . .' " The Dixons are as good a family as the Fantoms," he said to himself, " and Caroline Dixon is a wife for a prince." Eenshaw had not forgotten his promise to the dying child: what kindness he could shew to Mr. and Mrs. Brentwood he had shewn, arid he had loved Nelly as much as he could — and that was a great deal. When, therefore, Fantom and the Dixons returned from abroad, and Eenshaw paid his first visit to his rector, with whom Mr. and Mrs. Fantom were staying, he could give favourable accounts of many of the parishioners, and especially of the Brentwoods. " I wish that nice girl, Ellen Brentwood, were well married," said the old rector. " And so do I," chimed in both Mrs. and Mr. Fantom ; but Miss Dixon merely tossed her head. " I daresay she will be married soon enough, or it will not be for want of asking," remarked Eenshaw quietly. " But, by the way," he added, " I've something to say about the Straddles, which Fantom will be glad to hear." " Out with it !" said Fantom joyously. "My honeymoon has been embittered with thinking of what will become of poor Mrs. Straddle ;" for which observation he received a pinch and its antidote from the late Caroline Dixon. " Well," said Eenshaw, " you know that a great deal may happen in. a year ; but you would hardly have believed that so much good could- happen to Straddle in a year. The eccentric old woman, named Straddle, who owned those broken windowed, ghostly -looking houses in War-rington-street, and wouldn't have them repaired for fear of losing money, and who lived in a back-kitchen of one of them, has died without leaving a will, and Straddle the cab-driver turns out to be her heir-at-law." " Hurrah !" cried Fantom ; and there was general applause. "So Mrs. Straddle will be able to do without your honour's bounty," said Eenshaw, " for Straddle is in work again, and will find no difficulty in getting advanced to him what money he wants to get his property in order." "He will be assisted by a usurer of the name of Eenshaw, I suppose," cried FanI torn, looking kindly at his old friend ; " I'm sure Caroline and I would not mind doing a little usury in such company." " Never mind how it is to be managed," said Eenshaw ; " but I shall call on you if necessary." I The rest of the evening was spent in such pleasant discourse as only they can appreciate who have parted from and met again old and valued friends. Not long after the return of the wanderers, Eenshaw took an opportunity of saying to Nelly: "I would not for the world remind you unnecessarily of a painful, and yet not painful scene, but do you recollect what your little brother said as he lay " "Oh ! so well," interrupted Nelly ; " every word and every line. ' " He asked me to love you as well as I could," said Eenshaw, tremulously. Nelly made a motion of assent, but spoke no word. " I couldn't love you more than I do," continued Eenshaw, going close to her. Nelly looked on the ground, and two tears rolled down her cheeks. " I couldn't love anybody more than I love you," Eenshaw said, passionately, putting one arm round her waist. " O Ellen, will you not speak ? Will you be my wife P" Nelly flung herself upon his breast, and sobbed : " If you will have my poor love, God knows you have had it long." And so Eenshaw did put the ring on Nelly's finger after all ; and Straddle, having set up as a cab-master and flymaster, drove the bride to church; and Jimmy drove the carriage containing Sir George and Lady Fantom, for Jimmy had left boot-cleaning, and took to his father's business ; whereas Billy went into the indoors " newspaperin'." For Eenshaw and Nelly were not married at once, but waited until Eenshaw obtained a small college living in the country ; and by that time George Fantom had, succeeded his uncle in the baronetcy and estates. Mrs. Eenshaw made a capital parson's wife ; and her father would fain havo supplied the parsonage with butcher-meat gratis ; but Eenshaw, with his usual sense of justice, suggested to his father-in-law, who fully admitted his reasoning, that the parson of a parish ought to support the tradesmen of the parish. Howbeit, at certain seasons, old Brentwood sent such prime joints to the parsonage, that the archdeacon and other great persons who dined there at such, seasons declared tha.f; ,

no lord in the kingdom had such excellent meat as Eenshaw had. Occasionally, Mr. and Mrs. Brentwood went down to stay at theparsonagefrom Saturday until Monday, and enjoyed themselves very much, meeting no " society," and finding great favoir with the farmers and humbler villagers, who increased rather than diminished in respect when they knew what Mr. Brentwood's occupation was, and saw the sort of beef and mutton he was in the habit of supplying. As for the "pretty butcheress," she was highly regarded by both great and small, and was especially cultivated by her neighbours, Sir George and Lady Fantom. And Eenshaw begat sons and daughters, the former of whom, oddly enough, resembled the 'pretty buteheress,' and the latter the black-haired parson.