into his service; handing him his coffee, for instance, fetching him books and newspapers, offering him her arm when he rose from the sopha, following him about with footstools, cushions, and ottomans, and waiting on him just like a valet or a page in female attire. At the end of that period,-from some unexplained change of feeling, whether respect for his friend William Morland, or weariness of acting a part so unsuited to him, or some relenting in favour of the young lady, -he threw off at once his lameness and his affectation, and resumed his own singularly natural and delightful manner. I saw a great deal of him; for my father's family and the Selbys had intermarried once or twice in every century since the Conquest; and though it might have puzzled a genealogist to decide how near or how distant was the relationship, yet, as, amongst north-country-folk, "blood is warmer than water," we continued not only to call cousins, but to entertain much of the kindly feeling by which family connexion often is, and always should be accompanied. My father and Mr. Leslie had always been intimate, and Mary Morland and myself having taken a strong liking to each other, we met at one house or the other almost every day; and, accustomed, as I was, to watch the progress of Mrs. Leslie's manœuvres, the rise, decline and fall of her several schemes, I soon perceived that her hopes and plans were in full activity on the present occasion. It was, indeed, perfectly evident, that she expected to hail Annabella as Lady Selby before many months were past; and she had more reason for the belief than had often happened to her, inasmuch as Sir Arthur not only yielded with the best possible grace to her repeated entreaties for the postponement of his journey, but actually paid the young lady considerable attention, watching the progress of her portrait of Miss Morland, and aiding her not only by advice but assistance, to the unspeakable benefit of the painting, and even carrying his complaisance so far as to ask her to sing every evening, he being the very first person who had ever voluntarily caused the issue of those notes, which more resembled the screaming of a macaw than the tones of a human being. To be sure, he did not listen, that would have been too much to expect from mortal; but he not only regularly requested her to sing, but took care, by suggesting single songs, to prevent her sister from singing with her,—who, thus left to her own devices, used to sit in a corner listening to William Morland, with a sincerity and earnestness of attention, very different from the make-believe admiration which she had been used to shew by her mamma's orders to the clever men of fortune whom she had been put förward to attract. That Mrs. Leslie did not see what was going forward in that quarter was marvellous; but her whole soul was engrossed by the desire to clutch Sir Arthur, and so long as he called on Annabella for bravura after bravura, she was happy. Mr. Leslie, usually wholly inattentive to such proceedings, was on this occasion more clear-sighted. He asked Mary Morland one day "whether she knew what her brother and Sir Arthur were about? and, on her blushing and hesitating in a manner very unusual with her, added, chucking her under the chin, "a word to the wise is enough, my queen: I am not quite a fool, whatever your aunt may be, and so you may tell the young gentlemen;" and with that speech he walked off. The next morning brought a still fuller declaration of his sentiments. Sir Arthur had received, by post, a letter, which had evidently affected him greatly, and had handed it to William Morland, who had read it with equal emotion, but neither of them had mentioned its contents, or alluded to it in any manner. After breakfast, the young men walked off together, and the girls separated to their different employments. I, who had arrived there to spend the day, was about to join them, when I was stopped by Mr. Leslie. "I want to speak to you," said he, "about that cousin of your's. My wife thinks he's going to marry Bella, whereas it's plain to me, as doubtless it must be to you, that whatever attention he may be paying to that simple child and, for my own part, I don't see that he is paying her any-is merely to cover William Morland's attachment to Bab. So that the end of Mrs. Leslie's wise schemes will be to have one daughter the wife of a country cu rate "A country curate, Mr. Leslie !" ejaculated Mrs. Leslie, holding up her hands in amazement and horror. "And the other," pursued Mr. Leslie, "an old maid." C "An old maid!" reiterated Mrs. Leslie, in addi tional dismay- "An old maid! Her very wig stood on end; and what further she would have said was interrupted by the entrance of the accused party. "I am come, Mr. Leslie," said Sir Arthur- -" do not move, Mrs. Leslie - pray stay, my dear cousin I am come to present to you a double petition. The letter which I received this morning was, like most human events, of mingled yarn-it brought intelligence of good and of evil. I have lost an old and excellent friend, the rector of Hadley-cum-Appleton, and have, by that loss, an excellent living to present to my friend William Morland. It is above fifteen hundred a-year, with a large house, a fine garden, and a park-like glebe, altogether a residence fit for any lady; and it comes at a moment in which such a piece of preferment is doubly welcome, since the first part of my petition relates to him. Hear it favourably, my dear sir- my dear madam he loves your Barbara- and Barbara, I hope and believe, loves him." "There, Mrs. Leslie !" interrupted Mr. Leslie, with an arch nod. "There! do you hear that?" "You are both favourably disposed, I am sure," resumed Sir Arthur. "Such a son-in-law must be an honour to any man-must he not, my dear madam? and I, for my part, have a brother's interest in his suit." 66 'There, Mr. Leslie !" ejaculated, in her turn, Mrs. Leslie, returning her husband's nod most triumphantly. "A brother's interest! do you hear that?" - "I have to crave your Since," pursued Sir Arthur, intercession with his dear and admirable sister, whom I have loved, without knowing it, ever since we were children in the nursery, and who now, although confessing that she does not hate me, talks of want of fortune, as if I had not enough, and of want of beauty and of accomplishments, as if her matchless elegance and unrivalled conversation were not worth all the doll-like prettiness of tinsel acquirements under the sun. Pray intercede for me, dear cousin!-dear sir!" continued the ardent lover; whilst Mr. Leslie, without taking the slightest notice of the appeal, nodded most provokingly to the crest-fallen match-maker, and begged to know how she liked Sir Arthur's opinion of her system of education? What answer the lady made, this deponent saith not -indeed, I believe she was too angry to speak - but the result was all that could be desired by the young people; the journey was again postponed; the double marriage celebrated at Hallenden; and Miss Annabella, as bridesmaid, accompanied the fair brides to canny Northumberland," to take her chance for a husband amongst "fresh fields and pastures new." |