146 MARRIAGE 



bestow. There was no necessity for my expressing a wish 

 on this subject, for my father, anxious to enter on his new 

 engagement, set apart a portion of the business at Ports- 

 mouth for my individual and independent support ; and 

 having ah'eady sanctioned the matrimonial connection I 

 had formed, he advised an early settlement of it — ^that as 

 his time would now be wholly taken up in London, I 

 might devote mine to looking after his interest, as well as 

 my own, in Hampshire ; instead of spending it in taking 

 long journeys, and rambling over the heaths, and studying 

 the natural curiosities and antiquities of Dorsetshire. 



Accordingly, a house that he had recently purchased, 

 under peculiar circumstances, for £3000, was handsomely 

 furnished for the reception of a newly married coujole, 

 and I lost no time in making the object of my choice the 

 mistress of a modest, though respectable abode. To 

 witness the ceremony, I invited the friend and companion 

 I have before spoken of, and his wife, to accompany me ; 

 and my elder sister being already on a visit to the family 

 of my intended, everything passed off without any re- 

 markable incident, except that it was quite an event in 

 the old town. Young maidens strewing flowers, old 

 matrons smiling and curtseying in our path, and there 

 were other symbols of gratulation and respect, Avhich 

 denoted that one, at least, was an especial favourite in 

 the sphere in which she moved, and lived among those 

 whose esteem she had gained, and who now mixed tears 

 with their smiles at her departure. 



A few days after my arrival at home from the wedding 

 trip I had to apjDear first before the grand jury — then in 

 court at the quarter sessions — before the Recorder of 



