views of the responsibilities of marriage, and in a short private interview with his mother-in-law, the evening before his wedding, he told her in a plain, business-like way, that he had transferred into Bessie's name a life-insurance that he had effected many years before, for the sum of £100, so that if God pleased to take him before his wife, she would in a measure be provided for. Mrs. Rogers thanked him, but Buchanan told her he needed no thanks; for in his view of things, a man was not justified in marrying and taking on himself the cares of a family, unless he saw some prospect of provision for those that might come after him. "But," he added,

I hope Bessie will be contented to do something more than this in the saving way; I've a good post and good wages; and it is best while these last and health is good, to make, as the saying goes, "hay while the sun shines."

a

At Bessie's request, after the marriage ceremony, she and her husband, quickly leaving the festivities at the mill, returned to her mother's cottage, where the three had a quiet meal and talk together before their final separation. The parting was, indeed, trying one, for, save the visit to London, which had proved so eventful an one to Bessie as regarded her future, she had never been before separated from her mother. Robert Buchanan did his best to cheer both, and his reserved nature opened out more than usual, as he felt how much was required of him in softening that parting, and he made Mrs. Rogers

many promises of doing all he could to render Bessie's life a happy one. "I'm not one of those that thinks life is to be without trouble, Mrs. Rogers," he said, as he wrung her hand; "but Bessie and I have taken one another for better and worse, and, by God's help and an observance of His commands, I doubt not that come what may, we shall pull together through it, in harmony and much happiness," and then taking the initiative which his new position gave him, as the protector of the two women before him, with the utinost sincerity Robert Buchanan proposed that ere the final moment of his wife's departure drew near, they should all three join in prayer that God's blessing might rest on the new home Bessie was about to make, and His presence, more now than ever, light up her mother's future lonely roof, and be the support of her solitude.

CHAPTER II.

"A penny saved is a penny gained."

ROBERT BUCHANAN and his wife on arriving in London settled in a small house in Chelsea, which the former rented and of which they occupied the first floor themselves, and let the remainder, both above and below, to two other parties. In everything that affected her personal comfort, Bessie had no reason to complain of either her husband's want of forethought or liberality; and, brought up as she had been in the strictest economy, the allowance her husband made her for housekeeping seemed to her more than abundant. On the other hand, he was most desirous that there should be no waste, and offered to look over the accounts weekly until she got accustomed to London prices.

"The best way to be before the world, wife," said Robert, the first evening after their return home, when the subject of ways and means was fairly discussed between them, " is, I have found by

experience, to make your wants and expenditure fall a little below your income, whatever that may be, and the men or women who can do this are the only really rich people on the face of the earth. A lord may have £10,000 a year," continued Robert, "but if he spends £11,000, he's virtually a poorer man than he who has £500 a year and lives on £400. Ever since I was a lad of eighteen," added Bessie's husband, growing communicative, "I've gone on this principle, and it is astonishing how the small sum I put by weekly has turned itself over into just such a nest-egg as I wanted to realize against the time I took to myself a wife. I don't wish to have any secrets between us now, Bessie, and next time I get my banking-book back we'll go over it together, and you shall count up for yourself what odd shillings and small weekly payments have realized; and I shouldn't wonder after you've got a sight of it, but you'll be getting a book for your

self."

"But I've no money," said Bessie, colouring up.

"Yes, you have, wife, what's mine is yours now; besides, if you can save a little here and there out of the house allowance, you're welcome to keep it, and add it to your book, that is supposing you follow my advice and get one from the Post Office."

What made you think of saving when you were single, Robert ?" asked Bessie; "there's few do that."

"The fact that I meant to marry when I could

afford it," Buchanan retorted, " and so I looked out ahead to be ready. I was eighteen when I put my first shilling into the bank, and I am now thirtytwo, that's fourteen years to the good, you see, and now, please God, we need never pinch."

"How good of you," said Bessie.

"It wasn't good at all, it was simply for my own benefit and pleasure. I've been earning on an average all these fourteen years, say two pounds a week, that's taking one year with another, first and last ; and, as a bachelor, what did I want with more than a sovereign or twenty-five shillings at most? There was plenty of ways I could have spent it in, I daresay, fast enough, but I should have been none the better or happier if I had dribbled away my money without seeing any return for it; and even now that I am married, I hope still to live within our means."

Mother and I had to live on about ten shillings a week," said Bessie, "and we couldn't have saved much out of that, could we?"

"No, it wasn't to be expected you could have much more than a chance shilling here and there, but even that you would have found, in sixteen years, which is near the time Mrs. Rogers told me she had to keep herself, would have come up to a pretty little sum," said Robert. "But what does surprise me, I own, is the utter improvidence of the majority of men, who are, say, earning wages such as I do; for instance, over three pounds a week,