Reuben approved of the spirit evinced by Mrs. Reeves. It was necessary to say something, and this answered the purpose.

Mrs. Reeves then proceeded to say, that "she didn't see much use in sense and learning, since all the learning her master had in his head didn't make him wiser than other people after all: it was bad enough to marry at all, but if marry he must, he might have chosen some respectable elderly person, not a giddy, gay, inexperienced young lady, and handsome, she was informed, into the bargain.

This was painful to Reuben's ears, and he would have put an end to it, if he had been able.

"I suppose," he said, again in doubt what he ought to say, "my grandfather wanted a companion, somebody to manage his house for him."

This was rather a maladroit remark. "His house was not so ill-managed as all that," returned Mrs. Reeves, drily; "though she said it that should not say it; and as to companions, he had his books, he had his own writings and sermons; had he not as much company as he chose to invite ?-and was not she always willing, when he was lonely, to bring in her knitting, or her ironing, or whatever little thing she was doing, if it was only an apple-dumpling she was making, and sit anywhere he pleased? he might talk to her, or let it alone, just as he liked; but he never was, to say, an affable sort of a gentleman at any period of his life; and since he began to dabble in mortar, it had not sweetened his temper. Then she hoped and trusted his new wife would prove a better match for him than the two who were in heaven; but perhaps Master Reuben could tell her something about the young lady, as he had come from Hereford where

she lived."

Reuben had been apprehensive it would come to this, but there was no help for it, so he did his best to commad his emotions, and being once compelled to speak of Blanche, he could not do so except in terms the most laudatory, and even enthusiastic. In short, he was warmed by the theme, and ended by leaving Mrs. Reeves under the satisfactory conviction that if her new mistress laboured under the disadvantage of being young and handsome, she made some amends for those defects by being at the same time one of the most angelic of her sex.

The Dean's house presented now the edifying picture of a most diligent community; the workmen busy from morn till night at the repairs; Reuben labouring at his catalogue; Mrs.

Reeves manufacturing the fruits of the season into jams and conserves; in short, the bees were not a more industrious commonwealth. Catalogue-making pleased Reuben, because it not only exercised his ingenuity, but augmented his knowledge of the resources of literature. Reuben found numerous works in his grandfather's collection, of the very existence of which he had been ignorant; nay, he scarcely knew that there were such subjects as they treated of. Among others he found some curious old treatises on astrology, which seduced him for a day or two from his immediate pursuit. While interested in this idle study, he covered whole sheets of paper, and all the backs of his letters with diagrams, horoscopes, and calculations of imaginary nativities according to the rules which he found in the books. At length, having exhausted his paper, and wanting a more extended space for the working of a greater problem than he had yet encountered, he cleared the centre of the floor, drew his figures and circles with chalk, and began to realize to himself the actual operations of a cunning man of the middle ages. While he was occupied thus, his friend the carpenter came to him to solicit another favour, but it was a favour for the glazier, not for himself; in fact, the glazier wanted to send his Fanny a love letter, and wishing the letter to be a finer composition than he felt himself equal to produce, the idea had occurred to him of prevailing on our hero to compose one for him. The carpenter was indeed instructed to say, that there was little doubt of the heart of Fanny yielding to the pen of Master Reuben Medlicott, if he would kindly lend his genius for the occasion, and write the billet doux with a crow-quill. Reuben was interrupted and disturbed, but he was also flattered by this request. The crow-quill was easily found; the glazier, with his friend the carpenter, attended in the library after the work of the day, and an epistle was written, which (as Reuben long afterwards confessed), consisted for the most part of the identical tender thoughts and sentimental similies, which, arrayed in nearly the same words, had formed the materials of his letter to Blanche Barsac. "The fact was," he used to say, in his own excuse, "I was so engrossed by the astrology that original composition at the moment was out of the question." The gratitude of the glazier was unbounded; but give most men an inch and they will take an ell if they can get it. The carpenter re-appeared when Reuben was at breakfast, the next morning, and glancing knowingly at the figures and spheres with which the floor of the library was covered, he ven

tured to hint, after some circumlocution, that Mr. Medlicott could, if he pleased, form a tolerably shrewd guess as to the future fortunes of the glazier and his love.

Though Reuben declined to pry into the book of fate, even for the sake of comforting an affliction with which he could not but profoundly sympathise, it did not prevent his fame from spreading abroad for fortune-telling as well as letter-writing. Not many days elapsed before our magician, malgré lui, had two applications made to him, one for the discovery of a cow which had been stolen from a poor farmer, and the second, in another love case, to divine the success of a young man in the neighbourhood with Dorothy, the gardener's daughter.

In the middle of all this, and in strict keeping with the abruptness of everything connected with the life and movements of Dean Wyndham, down came the news of his wedding.

As it was to be, it was well it was over. Reuben's love was now his grandmother.

"After all," he said sensibly to himself, at the end of a solitary walk which he took to compose his spirits, "I am only eighteen, and Blanche is twenty-seven; she is certainly too young to be my grandmother, but she is also too old to be my wife." The same evening brought him a letter from home. Blanche had written his mother a charming letter a few days before her marriage, and sent her the picture she had drawn of Reuben, which had actually only required a few finishing touches, and those she had given from memory. The picture pleased Mrs. Medlicott extremely, and it was already placed over the chimneypiece of the dining-parlour, in a frame much too costly for what it contained, considered as a work of art.

When the Dean's wedding was noised abroad, it caused prodigious excitement, and as he had sent Mrs. Reeves a sum of money, to promote a little gaiety on the occasion among his people at Westbury, what form that gaiety ought to take became an immediate subject of deliberation. Another rustic ball was resolved on, and as the moon was no longer auspicious, the barn was selected for the scene of festivity. A box of candles was ordered from the nearest town, and the carpenters with a few hoops made some capital substitutes for chandeliers, all under Reuben's directions; for, without any formal appointment, or any ambition to obtain it, he found himself installed in the office of master of the revels. The walls had their nakedness handsomely clothed with festoons of evergreens and flowers; the floor was

well rolled and made as smooth as it was possible to make it; a substantial supper was prepared; a hogshead of cider stood ready to be broached; all the fiddlers and pipers within reach were retained specially, and a Welsh harper, who was on his way to a meeting of the bards, was induced to sojourn for the night, and add his contribution to the music. The Dean had no idea of such doings, or he would never have sent the donation, for there was an end of all labour on the farm, and all work within doors for the two days preceding the fête. The greatest excitement of all, however, was among the girls, wondering and discussing which of them would be honoured with Reuben's hand, for the ball would, of course, be opened by him; and whether it was a nymph of the dairy, the garden, or the bedrooms, it was certain that the honour of being his partner would fall to the lot of somebody.

All would have gone well if they had been content with the dancing, but Reuben unluckily knew something about making fire-works, and the moment the word was mentioned, it became clear to everybody that without fire-works, the celebration of the nuptials might as well be abandoned altogether. Accordingly to work he went at the pyrotechnics, and, aided by the carpenter and glazier, who were now his most devoted servants, a quantity of rockets, squibs, crackers, and a few more ingenious devices, were produced in a wonderfully short time, as there was no difficulty about procuring gunpowder.

It was arranged that the fire-works should precede the ball and supper; had it been otherwise, they might have secured the latter enjoyments at all events; but the fire-works had the precedence, and the beginning of the display was most successful. Reuben let off the rockets with his own hands, and the wonder and delight of everybody was at the height, when an exclamation was heard that the great hay-rick had caught fire. Consternation soon took the place of mirth. The rick was in a blaze before the nimblest could reach the yard. All that could be done to extinguish the flames, by putting up ladders and carrying up buckets of water, was done with as much expedition and activity as possible, but in spite of every effort the fire continued to rage, and soon extending to other ricks and some stacks of corn, threatened the entire of Dean Wyndham's farm-property with destruction. Reuben behaved now like a hero, if he had not acted before like a philosopher. His exertions were beyond those of anybody else, except perhaps his friends, the mechanics,

who supported him as well as men could do. The utmost, however, that could be effected was to save the buildings and the cattle. All the hay and corn in the yard, with many of the agricultural implements, were a heap of ashes before the sun rose the following morning; and as to Reuben, who considered himself the responsible person for the calamity, between the toil he underwent, the drenching of his clothes, and his mental-sufferings, when poor Mrs. Reeves (herself in a pitiable situation) put him to bed at four o'clock in the morning, he was in the first stage of a high fever.