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his son. Legions of flies buzzing in the hermetically-closed windows, enlivened by the louder drone of an occasional wasp, afforded a running accompaniment to their angry dialogue.

The subject of their quarrel was one of no uncommon occurrence between a rich old father and his son and heir;-namely, an imprudent marriage contemplated by the latter. But, as John Woolston had attained the sober age of thirty-one, and was, in other respects, a sedate and well-conditioned man, it may be inferred that the sole thing wanting in the engagement so unacceptable to his father, was the worldly pelf with which the Woolston family were themselves amply provided. The rent-roll of the Harrals estate amounted to eight thousand per annum; and the poor quiet little Lady Woolston, who had crept away from the dessert table, on perceiving that a. stormy debate was about to set in between her husband and son, sprang from a wealthy Liverpool family, of commercial origin, from whom she derived a considerable fortune.

Sir Harry, however, remained as keenly alive to the value of a guinea, as though it were a coin he had rarely the luck to finger. Having charged his estate, at his marriage, with a sum of five-and-twenty thousand pounds, to be ultimately divided among his younger children, he made it the business of his life to economise, out of his income, the means of paying off this unwelcome incumbrance; till, by degrees, penurious habits became second nature. And now, though the sum in request had not only been fully completed, but distributed in the form of dowry to his three married daughters, he remained as careful, or rather as shabby, as if his family and his engagements were still unprovided for.

John Woolston, though an only son, and heirin-tail to so handsome a property, had been educated at Rugby rather than Eton, and at a minor college at Cambridge numbering Woolstons aforegone among its benefactors, solely with a view to tame down his aspirings, and

check his habits of expense.

Sir Harry had even compelled him to study for the bar, on pretence that the recordership of his county town, or the chairmanship of the quarter sessions, would in a few years await his acceptance. But the real object of the wary old man was to establish his son out of harm's way, in quiet chambers in the Temple, rather than expose him to the pleasures and perils of a bachelor residence in May Fair.

The result was, that, instead of becoming Jack Woolston and a spendthrift, he remained plain John, and what his fashionable brother-in-law, Gerard Molyneux, termed a snob.

But Sir Harry found no cause to triumph in the results of his policy. For though his son had submitted to his authority so far as to eat his way to the bar, the bar afforded him nothing to eat in return; and in the event of his accomplishing the match, the announcement of which had so moved the ire of the old baronet, Mr. Woolston possessed nothing towards the

maintenance of a family, save the allowance of five hundred per annum, formally assigned to him on leaving college.

This material point was again and again urged upon him by Sir Harry. But John replied, and at first with tolerable composure, "that, having complied through life with the wishes and counsels of his parents, he must on the present occasion be permitted to consult his own inclinations. Since Sir Harry denied him all further pecuniary assistance, he would rely on his professional exertions, and be content."

"Ay,-till you come into your estate," interrupted Sir Harry. "I know what you mean, sir-till your father is shuffled under ground, and you are privileged to stand in his shoes! No doubt these Denny Cross people have taken the exact measure of your rights and titles ;-perhaps employed an actuary, to calculate my chances of life!"

"You do them great wrong, sir. Mr. Pennington respects himself, and I trust respects me

too much to indulge in any such paltry speculations," replied young Woolston. "For three years past, I have been engaged to his daughter; yet he has never urged my fulfilment of the contract, knowing it to be contrary to your wishes."

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'Mighty honourable,—mighty magnanimous ! But if so scrupulous, why not forbid you his house? Why not end the matter at once?"

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"Because he knows his daughter to be sincerely attached to me; and judges it unnecessary to oppose our mutual happiness, since we are prepared to be poor, and frugal, till you, my dear father, can be brought to contemplate the case in a more reasonable point of view." "Thank you, sir; thanks, both to you and Mr. Pennington, and the whole legion of his clod-hopping family! If you are content, John Woolston, so am I.—But of this be sure:that I am neither to be schooled nor canted out of my opinion. When you first asked my sanction to your addresses to this precious Maria

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