PASSAGE IN THE LIFE OF MR. WATKINS TOTTLE. 17 



<( You admire the sex ?" 



" I do," 



"And you'd like to be married?" 



" Certainly." 



" Then you shall be. There's an end of that." And thus saying, 

 Mr. Gabriel Parsons took a pinch of snuff, and mixed another glass. 



"Let me entreat you to be more explanatory/' said Tottle. 

 " Really, as the party principally interested, I cannot consent to be 

 disposed of in this way." 



" I'll tell you," replied Mr. Gabriel Parsons, warming with the sub- 

 ject, and the brandy-and- water. " I know a lady she's stopping 

 with my wife now who is just the thing for you. Well-educated; 

 talks French ; plays the piano ; knows a good deal about flowers and 

 shells and all that sort of thing ; and has five hundred a year, with 

 an uncontrolled power of disposing of it by her last will and tes- 

 tament" 



" I'll pay my addresses to her," said Mr. Watkins Tottle. " She 

 isn't very young is she ?" 



"Not very ; just the thing for you. I've said that already." 



" What coloured hair has the lady ?" inquired Mr. Watkins 

 Tottle. 



" Egad ! I hardly recollect," replied Gabriel, with great coolness. 

 " Perhaps I ought to have observed, at first, she wears a front." 



"A what!" ejaculated Tottle. 



" One of those things with curls along here," said Parsons, drawing 

 a straight line across his forehead, just over his eyes, in illustration of 

 his meaning. " I know the front's black ; I can't speak quite posi- 

 tively about her own hair ; because, unless one walks behind her, 

 and catches a glimpse of it under her bonnet, one seldom sees it ; but 

 I should say that it was rather lighter than the front just a shade of 

 a greyish tinge perhaps." 



Mr. Watkins Tottle, looked as if he had certain misgivings of 

 mind. Mr. Gabriel Parsons perceived it, and thought it would be 

 safe to begin the next attack without delay. 



"Were you ever in love, Tottle?" he enquired. Mr. Watkins 

 Tottle blushed up to the eyes, and down to the chin, and exhibited a 

 most pleasing combination of colours, as he confessed the soft im- 

 peachment. 



" I suppose you popped the question more than once, when you 



were a young , I beg your pardon a younger man," said 



Parsons. 



" Never in my life," replied his friend, apparently indignant at 

 being suspected of such an act. <( Never ! the fact is, that I enter- 

 tain, as you know, peculiar opinions on these subjects. I am not 

 afraid of ladies, young or old far from it ; but I think that in com- 

 pliance with the custom of the present day, they allow too much 

 freedom of speech and manner to marriageable men. Now the fact 

 is, that any thing like this easy freedom, I never could acquire ; 

 and as I am always afraid of going too far, I am generally, I dare 

 say, considered formal and cold." 



" I shouldn't wonder if you were," replied Parsons, gravely ; " I 



M.M. No. 1. D 



