302 MATRIMONY AND MOONSHINE. 



" Gone, sir ! gone ! " sighed mamma. 



"Gone!" ejaculated Mr. Robinson with more interest than he 

 he usually exhibited ; " gone, and so suddenly !" 



<c Suddenly, indeed," responded the mother, " it surprised us all !" 

 and her cambric handkerchief was in constant requisition. 



" Poor thing !" returned Robinson, " and so young ! " 



"Old enough to have known better," rejoined the lady. 



"Caused by some imprudence, I suppose?" 



" Imprudence, indeed ! she has brought a disgrace upon her family. 

 I dread the wrath of Lord Mountcoffeehouse ! and Sir Pedigree 

 Macdusty, who was so partial to her too, what will he say ?" 



" Disgrace upon her family ? " enquired Robinson. 



" Yes, sir ; a stain upon its annals/' 



<{ A stain upon its annals !" repeated Robinson ; (( I don't under- 

 stand you, madam ; death spares no one. " 



"Death! Mr. Robinson?" 



" I thought I understood you, that the poor young lady 



" Is gone to Scotland !" sighed Mrs. Golightly. 



" To the family vault, I presume ?" asked Robinson. 



" Good heavens ! Mr. Robinson, I mean to be married eloped, 

 sir eloped." 



" Married! eloped! O, quite a different matter." 



" Ay, sir," continued the afflicted mother, " eloped with the son of 

 a grocer. The Golightlys connected with figs and prunes ! " 



(t But he is rich, I hope ? " 



" So it is said." 



" Come, come, madam, the affair may not be so bad after all," re- 

 sumed Mr. Robinson. 



Mrs. Golightly thought, or affected to think otherwise: she 

 dreaded the resentment of her titled relatives. A grocer for a son-in- 

 law ! treacle and molasses ! 



" Consols and exchequer bills ! Bank annuities and reduced ! " 

 whispered Robinson. 



" But base and filthy lucre, Mr. Robinson ; " and the lady launched 

 out at considerable length, and with an animation which chased 

 away the resigned melancholy with which the interview had com- 

 menced, on the pride of ancestry, the pure blood of the Golightlys, 

 &c. Then drawing herself up with an air of unwonted dignity, she 

 continued, te And now, Mr. Robinson, I require of you, as a proof of 

 your friendship for my family, that you immediately take horse, and 

 pursue the fugitives/' 



Mr. Robinson was a grave and sober character, and never perhaps 

 were these qualities more severely tried than when he found himself 

 thus apostrophized by the Lady Golightly, with whose straitened in- 

 come and intriguing spirit he was fully acquainted. When he heard 

 her gravely proposing to him " to take horse" to prevent a union which 

 he shrewly suspected she had winked at, if not actually encouraged, 

 he experienced a certain relaxation of the risible muscles which he 

 was unused to. Regaining, however, his accustomed composure, and 

 giving her a look which seemed to say " Nous jouons la comcdie," 

 he proceeded: " My devotion, madam, to your family I trust you will 



