me out to one another, and cry-'od's life, my dear, saw you ever such a pretty fellow, and such a graceful young cavalier ?" "Tush, Sir, tush!" cried his spouse, scandalized at these vainglorious boastings-"have you no shame that you thus recall the sinful pleasures of your reprobate and unregenerate days? Though you are still a wanderer from the saving doctrine, and the paths of righteous and holy living, methinks you might at least recollect that you are now an old man." "Mort de ma vie, Becky! say middle-aged, or elderly at the worst. I wish I could forget it, for though I can still sit a horse passing well, and carry myself somewhat like a soldier”—here he drew up his fine figure, and thrust out his chest-" yet do I feel that I am no longer what I was. Nay, look not so glum, mistress mine; thou knowest that I was once a comely spark, or else how camest thou, seeing that he was such a graceless caitiff, to bestow thy fair hand upon the gay, tippling, love-making, song-singing varlet, Jaspar Colyton ?" VOL. II. Not being provided with a satisfactory answer to this question, the lady contented herself with a shake of the head and a sigh, which might rather be interpreted into an expression of regret at the step she had taken, than an explanation of her motives; when suddenly changing a subject that seemed to be an unpalatable one, she exclaimed, "You only wish, then, to behold your son Walter that you may be reminded of yourself in your younger days, and admire his dragoon uniform. The boy will not resemble you in one respect, for I have not brought him up like a Moabite or a Canaanite, but have given him a good and godly education; and as for his regimentals, they may well be handsome, seeing what they have cost us, and that we have had to pay twice over for his outfit." "Thanks to your usual good management, which sewed up his money in a saddle instead of entrusting it to his proper keeping, and which was much of a piece with the forethought that locked up Orchard Place, and left it to be sacked by Lord Feversham's troopers." Mrs. Colyton could seldom bear to be twitted with the loss of money, especially when it was occasioned by her own mismanagement, without losing her temper, and as she generally fell into one of her worst humours, when she found herself getting the worst of the discussion, she rebuked her husband in a strain proportionate to her conscious deficiency of better argument. "'Od's heart, Becky !" cried the Squire, who though he did not love his wife, hated to have his equanimity disturbed, "I never meant to vex thee. There's my hand, and I ask thy pardon, so prythee let us be good friends, so far, at least, as to have no wrangling and jangling. 'Sdeath! it would give me no displeasure on earth to measure swords once more with an armed Roundhead, but it irketh me to measure angry words with a Puritan spouse, especially when we should all be jovial and merry at the thought of Walter's return. Though he owes his soldiership to me, he is no prodigal son, thanks to your pious tuition, and we have no fatted calf to kill, but if I draw not the corks, and spill not the blood of some of my tallest claret bottles on the day of his arrival at Orchard Place, then am I not his father, and no true toper. What! saith not the old song 'The man that swills ale Soon finds his words fail, And ever be fit for a frolic !'" “Ah Jaspar! Jaspar! you are still as young as ever in one respect; glad of any excuse for a carouse, and loving the flesh-pots of Egypt more than the pleasant savour of the land of Promise. Will you never forsake these creature comforts, these devil's decoys, wherewith he catcheth sinners and topers by the palate, even as an angler catcheth a gudgeon? Know you how much we pay a year to these Popish Philistines of France for their sin-begetting claret, not so good after all as a draught of honest home-brewed ale or cider; and have you forgotten-Hetty, my dear, you may follow Edith to her room, and look that the blinds be down, lest the sun should fade the curtains-have you forgotten, I say, in your heathen eagerness for a drinking bout, that this early return of Walter is no subject for merriment, since it may revive his idle attachment to Hetty Chervil ?" “'Slife, Becky, I thought not of that! but I warrant there will be little now to fear, for the lad has been in London and in camp, and if he be his father's son and a true soldier, he has had half a dozen mistresses by this time." "Heaven forbid that he should be such a vessel of abomination! When he hath once made a prudent and a proper choice, I trust he will ever be true to his vow." 66 Ay, and so do I: I would have him as true to the sex as the weathercock is to the wind, always owning its influence, and yet pointing twenty different ways in a month. What! I warrant the young rogue has already lounged |