A PIC NIC. 19 



thought it prudent to make a corresponding movement of mine, 

 in the inverse ratio of the upper ; ** come in directly ! — You '11 be 

 ruined in the sun there without your bonnets ! — My dear Mr. A.,'' 

 lowering her voice, and resuming the dialogue, "we must think 

 of something for tliem : we must get some of them married." 



" Nothing is easier," replied the husband in a dry, business- 

 like tone, lowered, whether by design or not, to a whimsical 

 unison with that in which her last words were spoken; " nothing 

 is easier, my dear Mrs. A. Surely, surely you were not asleep 

 last night — no, I am sure you were not — when I told you that I 

 had had a good offer for Adey. Our neighbour, Tom Burton, 

 proposed to me for her yesterday. If she were to marry him, 

 she would only go a couple of miles from us. We might see her 

 every day — lovely, and happy, and dear to us, even as in this 

 happy hour, with sunshine and home all around her, only with 

 one more affection to sweeten the long life which, please God, is 

 before her ; and that need not make us jealous, my dear Mrs. A. 

 She has known him from infancy, and I am sure she likes him." 



" I flatter myself a daughter of mine can like any man when I 

 tell her he is a proper match for her," said the justly proud 

 mother. ** But Mr. Burton won't do, Mr. A., and you know it, 

 and it is provoking of you. He is too poor: his rich cousin is 

 the partie ; it is he that swallows up the wealth and real respect- 

 ability of the family^ If we could manage Sir James Burton 

 now ! " 



" God forbid ! " said Mr Allington. " Swallows them up, 

 indeed ! — Why, he drinks and he plays ; — a drunkard and a 

 sharper " 



"Some ill-natured people do hint that he does sometimes drink 

 a little more than is good for his health, and does play a leetle bit 

 more than necessary, but I do n't believe a word of it : — I won't 

 believe " 



" And a glutton," continued Mr. A., as if in a humour to 

 proceed in the statement of a sum in which the unit's place was 

 still far distant, " and a " 



" A glutton, Mr. A. 1 — What can you possibly mean ? — Do n't 

 you know that there never was a time when it was so absolutely 

 essential a quality of a gentleman to understand cookery thor- 

 oughly ? — But now, dear Mr. A., I wish you would be serious. 

 If we could get him, indeed it would be something like a match. 

 But the world has given him away already, and I fear there is 

 nothing very likely to break it off. Well, what a lucky woman 

 Mrs. Carleton is, to get such a marriage for her ugly daughter! " 



