such a conquest very probable. I certainly 

 love Fanny dearly. She is a good girl, but 

 no beauty, and not what I should call very 

 attractive. If you don't want her to be an 

 old maid, you had better let her marry Frank 

 Rives.' 



This was coming to the point, and a point, 

 too, which made Mrs. Robinson shudder. 

 Such doubts and fears had thrilled in her 

 own bosom before now, and Mr. Langtree 

 sent them home with a shock that brought 

 her to her reason at once. She sighed hea- 

 vily as she said — 



' Well, if you say it must be, so be it. I 

 will not oppose, though I cannot approve it.' 



' He that ruleth his own spirit is greater 

 than he that taketh a city.' Mrs. Robinson 

 had often felt equal to the { taking the city,' 

 for she had resolution and energy sufficient 

 for any emergency ; but the ' ruling her own 

 spirit 1 was a task she had never attempted, 

 whether as a feat beyond her powers or 

 beneath them, we do not undertake to say. 



Her consent was given, however, and the 

 thing settled, but no sooner was it thus 

 settled than she became as her servants ex- 

 pressed it, ' so cross there was no living in 

 the house with her.' Nothing went right, 

 nothing pleased her. She was indignant at 

 being congratulated, and vexed when she 

 was not. Mr. Langtree saw that this irrita- 

 tion of spirit would not subside until the 

 marriage was over, and therefore backed 

 Mr. Rives in his petition for naming an early 

 day ; and Fanny being only in too great a 

 hurry to get away and take refuge in her 

 own house, the affair was soon arranged, the 

 wedding over and Fanny gone. 



Mrs. Robinson sat down and cried hear- 

 tily as the bridal carriages drove off, but 

 whether her tears were shed for Fanny or 

 herself she could not perhaps have told, 

 even while she wept. It was the termina- 

 tion of many a bright dream and brilliant 

 vision, the rainbow ending in the shower. 



A few weeks had passed away, and Mrs. 

 Robinson and Mr. Langtree were to dine 

 with Fanny. Her husband expected several 

 strangers ; and this being her first dinner, 

 was, of course, quite an event in her do- 

 mestic economy. But, alas ! when it made 

 its appearance, that it was the first was very 

 evident. The soup was miserable, the fish 

 half-boiled. Roast turkey boldly faced roast 

 venison, and the currant jelly was forgotten. 

 In short, it was a dinner of mistakes. Mr. 

 Rives cast an expressive look, half -distress 

 and half-reproach, at his young wife, who 

 colored crimson, and in her embarrassment 

 said, ' No thank you,' — not hearing what was 

 said, to some one who asked her to take 

 wine. 



She left the table, mentally resolving to 

 get a book on Cookery before she slept ; and 



never again to trust her husband's temper or 

 her own comfort to the native skill of a new 

 cook. 



' Well, Fanny,' said Mrs. Robinson to her 

 daughter, after they withdrew to the draw- 

 ing-room, ' I think your husband must have 

 been proud to hear you conversing at the 

 head of your table to foreigners in their own 

 language.' 



* He might have been,' she replied, sor- 

 rowfully, ' if he had not been so ashamed of 

 the dinner — but I rather think, if he had said 

 frankly what he thought, he would have said 

 " there was no accomplishment like cook- 

 ing." ' 



' Mr. Rives did not expect to find a cook 

 in my daughter,' said Mrs. Robinson, 

 haughtily. 



' No, certainly not,' replied the young 

 wife ; ' but every mistress of a family should 

 know how to direct, and that I mean to set 

 about learning at once. Ah ! Uncle Charles,' 

 she continued, as her mother turned away, 

 ' do you remember how often I used to say 

 that I should be glad to be married, if it 

 were only to be done with my education, and 

 here I am just beginning, at the useful part 

 of it at least. You would laugh at me of an 

 evening, stitching coarse wristbands and cut- 

 ting up old calico for the sake of learning 

 how to sew and shape.' 



■ Take comfort, Fanny,' said her uncle 

 kindly, ' these things are easily learnt j and 

 though your husband was mortified to-day, 

 depend upon it, he would have been more so 

 if everything had been perfect on the table, 

 and his wife had shown herself a mere do- 

 mestic drudge.' 



' That is true,' said Fanny, brightening, 

 Stud, as you say, it is easily learnt. What 

 comes cm naturel comes readily.' 



i Fanny seems very happy,' said Mr. 

 Langtree, as he walked home with Mrs, 

 Robinson. 



' Yes,' she answered, i very ;' but her tone 

 was so dispirited and sad, that her brother * 

 saw that the conviction gave her little com- 

 fort, for though Fanny was happy, it was not 

 in her way, and she could not comprehend 

 the fact. 



' And what should you ask more,' con- 

 tinued he, ' than her happiness ? You did 

 all you could to give her other tastes, but 

 she is as Grod made her.' 



' I know what you have always thought,' 

 said Mrs. Robinson ; ' and though in some 

 particulars I may have erred, yet upon the 

 whole, I think I have been in the right. 

 Without all the pains and education that 

 have been bestowed upon Fanny she Avould 

 have been, it must be confessed, very home- 

 spun.' 



4 There is a great deal in that,* replied 

 Mr. Langtree, more struck than he had ever 



