SWAMP HALL. 289 



grandfather. Mr. Edmund Wilkins, the junior partner of a respectable 

 house in the city, had, for some two years past, been received by the 

 Pennys, was by no means indifferent to Mary, and what was, indeed, a 

 still greater recommendation, was not decidedly objected to by Mr. 

 Solon. Unhappily, however, the friend of the family, was " the for- 

 tunate holder" of a somewhat irascible bull- terrier, that on a very slight 

 provocation, laid bare the shin-bone of Edmund Wilkins, who, in his 

 agony, unmindful of the sacrilege for the terrier bull was sacred as the 

 lares at the fire-side of the Pennys returned the assault with so vigor- 

 ous a kick, that a fractured rib was the lot of (in Mrs. Penny's words) 

 " the dear dumb animal." This, in the emphatic language of Mr. Solon, 

 " ruffian-like assault" on the part of Edmund Wilkins, was construed 

 into an open declaration of war by the friend of the family, and thus the 

 lover had at once to contend, against the fancied horrors of hydrophobia, 

 and the powerful interest of the owner of Swamp Hall. Besides this, 

 Mr. Solon had formed a street acquaintance with the Honourable 

 Frederick Rustington a gentleman, who had gallantly delivered the 

 family friend from a knot of pick-pockets on a levee day who was 

 connected with the first families, whose dress was the very flower of the 

 mode, and whose mustachios were as black as Erebus. Of course, the 

 Honourable Frederick Rustington had been made at home with the 

 Pennys: too much attention could not be paid to the preserver of the 

 family friend. At any time, Edmund Wilkins would have willing dis- 

 pensed with the presence of the visitor, but coming as he did, pat on the 

 attack of the bull- terrier, introduced and patronized by the vindictive 

 Solon, he was a rival not to be despised. Edmund Wilkins could see 

 that Mrs. Penny began to look coldly upon him that Mr. Penny seemed 

 half afraid, to venture as he was wont, a cordial shake of the hand 

 that Mary would sit for half an hour, with her pretty blue eyes, con- 

 templating the pattern of the carpet and, worse than all, that Mr. Solon 

 would cast a supercilious look of triumph from the junior partner, to the 

 mustachios of the Honourable Frederick Rustington. All this, had 

 Edmund Wilkins to endure, together with a wound in his shin, and a 

 nervous excitement at the thoughts of water. 



" I have made up my mind," said Mr. Solon, when induced by the 

 attentions of Mr. Penny, to descend from his wrath to the affairs of 

 the family. " I am determined Mary must marry the Honourable Mr* 

 Rustington." Mr. Penny was about to remonstrate, but was sum- 

 marily checked by the friend of the family. " Marry him directly, and 

 the young couple can go and spend the honeymoon at Swamp Hall 

 Swamp Hall !" Had the tongue of Demosthenes enriched the mouth of 

 Mr. Penny, it would have been paralyzed with the syllables " Swamp 

 Hall' he was dumb, and the matter, at least, in the opinion of Mr. 

 Solon, was finally arranged. 



Enter Becky with letters. They were scarcely glanced at by Mr. 

 Penny, ere they were in the hands of the friend of the family. " A 

 .plague on the impudence of this world," cried Mr. Penny, " here is that 

 fellow Rogers, sending to me for the loan of a hundred pounds I The 

 brazen rascal !" 



" Why, Mr. Penny, you forget Mr. Rogers a man of honour a 

 man of substance." 



(( Substance ! My dear sir, he has been going to pieces this twelve- 

 month !" 



