some preliminary arrangements are made. When we are settled, I hope
your mother will allow you to come and spend some time with us at

our country-seat in Berkshire; and I shall be happy to repay all the
expenses of your journey, as a jaunt to England is what your mother

would, I know, never consent to pay for.
It is proposed that, immediately after the ceremony, we shall set

out for France, accompanied by my brother, where we are to be soon
after joined at Paris by some of the Argents, who, I can see, think

Andrew worth the catching for Miss. My father and mother will then
return to Scotland; but whether the Doctor will continue to keep his

parish, or give it up to Mr. Snodgrass, will depend greatly on the
circumstances in which he finds his parishioners. This is all the

domestic intelligence I have got to give, but its importance will
make up for other deficiencies.

As to the continuance of our discoveries in London, I know not well
what to say. Every day brings something new, but we lose the sense

of novelty. Were a fire in the same street where we live, it would
no longer alarm me. A few nights ago, as we were sitting in the

parlour after supper, the noise of an engine passing startled us
all; we ran to the windows--there was haste and torches, and the

sound of other engines, and all the horrors of a conflagration
reddening the skies. My father sent out the footboy to inquire

where it was; and when the boy came back, he made us laugh, by
snapping his fingers, and saying the fire was not worth so much--

although, upon further inquiry, we learnt that the house in which it
originated was burnt to the ground. You see, therefore, how the

bustle of this great world hardens the sensibilities, but I trust
its influence will never extend to my heart.

The principal topic of conversation at present is about the queen.
The Argents, who are our main instructors in the proprieties of

London life, say that it would be very vulgar in me to go to look at
her, which I am sorry for, as I wish above all things to see a

personage so illustrious by birth, and renowned by misfortune. The
Doctor and my mother, who are less scrupulous, and who, in

consequence, somehow, by themselves, contrive to see, and get into
places that are inaccessible to all gentility, have had a full view

of her majesty. My father has since become her declared partisan,
and my mother too has acquired a leaning likewise towards her side

of the question; but neither of them will permit the subject to be
spoken of before me, as they consider it detrimental to good morals.

I, however, read the newspapers.
What my brother thinks of her majesty's case is not easy to divine;

but Sabre is convinced of the queen's guilt, upon some private and
authentic information which a friend of his, who has returned from

Italy, heard when travelling in that country. This information he
has not, however, repeated to me, so that it must be very bad. We

shall know all when the trial comes on. In the meantime, his
majesty, who has lived in dignifiedretirement since he came to the

throne, has taken up his abode, with rural felicity, in a cottage in
Windsor Forest; where he now, contemning all the pomp and follies of

his youth, and this metropolis, passes his days amidst his cabbages,
like Dioclesian, with innocence and tranquillity, far from the

intrigues of courtiers, and insensible to the murmuring waves of the
fluctuating populace, that set in with so strong a current towards

"the mob-led queen," as the divine Shakespeare has so beautifully
expressed it.

You ask me about Vauxhall Gardens;--I have not seen them--they are
no longer in fashion--the theatres are quite vulgar--even the opera-

house has sunk into a second-rate place of resort. Almack's balls,
the Argyle-rooms, and the Philharmonic concerts, are the only public

entertainments frequented by people of fashion; and this high
superiority they owe entirely to the difficulty of gaining

admission. London, as my brother says, is too rich, and grown too
luxurious, to have any exclusive place of fashionableresort, where

price alone is the obstacle. Hence, the institution of these select
aristocratic assemblies. The Philharmonic concerts, however, are

rather professional than fashionable entertainments; but everybody
is fond of music, and, therefore, everybody, that can be called

anybody, is anxious to get tickets to them; and this anxiety has
given them a degree of eclat, which I am persuaded the performance

would never have excited had the tickets been purchasable at any
price. The great thing here is, either to be somebody, or to be

patronised by a person that is a somebody; without this, though you
were as rich as Croesus, your golden chariots, like the comets of a

season, blazing and amazing, would speedily roll away into the
obscurity from which they came, and be remembered no more.

At first when we came here, and when the amount of our legacy was
first promulgated, we were in a terrible flutter. Andrew became a

man of fashion, with all the haste that tailors, and horses, and
dinners, could make him. My father, honest man, was equally

inspired with lofty ideas, and began a career that promised a
liberal benefaction of good things to the poor--and my mother was

almost distracted with calculations about laying out the money to
the best advantage, and the sum she would allow to be spent. I

alone preserved my natural equanimity; and foreseeing the necessity
of new accomplishments to suit my altered circumstances, applied

myself to the instructions of my masters, with an assiduity that won
their applause. The advantages of this I now experience--my brother

is sobered from his champaign fumes--my father has found out that
charity begins at home--and my mother, though her establishment is

enlarged, finds her happiness, notwithstanding the legacy, still
lies within the little circle of her household cares. Thus, my dear

Bell, have I proved the sweets of a true philosophy; and, unseduced
by the blandishments of rank, rejected Sir Marmaduke Towler, and

accepted the humbler but more disinterested swain, Captain Sabre,
who requests me to send you his compliments, not altogether content

that you should occupy so much of the bosom of your affectionate
RACHEL PRINGLE.

"Rachel had ay a gude roose of hersel'," said Becky Glibbans, as
Miss Isabella concluded. In the same moment, Mr. Snodgrass took his

leave, saying to Mr. Micklewham, that he had something particular to
mention to him. "What can it be about?" inquired Mrs. Glibbans at

Mr. Craig, as soon as the helper and schoolmaster had left the room:
"Do you think it can be concerning the Doctor's resignation of the

parish in his favour?" "I'm sure," interposed Mrs. Craig, before
her husband could reply, "it winna be wi' my gudewill that he shall

come in upon us--a pridefu' wight, whose saft words, and a' his
politeness, are but lip-deep; na, na, Mrs. Glibbans, we maun hae

another on the leet forbye him."
"And wha would ye put on the leet noo, Mrs. Craig, you that's sic a

judge?" said Mrs. Glibbans, with the most ineffable
consequentiality.

"I'll be for young Mr. Dirlton, who is baith a sappy preacher of the
word, and a substantial hand at every kind of civility."

"Young Dirlton!--young Deevilton!" cried the orthodox Deborah of
Irvine; "a fallow that knows no more of a gospeldispensation than I

do of the Arian heresy, which I hold in utter abomination. No, Mrs.
Craig, you have a godly man for your husband--a sound and true

follower; tread ye in his footsteps, and no try to set up yoursel'
on points of doctrine. But it's time, Miss Mally, that we were

taking the road; Becky and Miss Isabella, make yourselves ready.
Noo, Mrs. Craig, ye'll no be a stranger; you see I have no been lang

of coming to give you my countenance; but, my leddy, ca' canny, it's
no easy to carry a fu' cup; ye hae gotten a great gift in your

gudeman. Mr. Craig, I wish you a good-night; I would fain have
stopped for your evening exercise, but Miss Mally was beginning, I

saw, to weary--so good-night; and, Mrs. Craig, ye'll take tent of
what I have said--it's for your gude." So exeunt Mrs. Glibbans,

Miss Mally, and the two young ladies. "Her bark's waur than her
bite," said Mrs. Craig, as she returned to her husband, who felt

already some of the ourie symptoms of a henpecked destiny.
CHAPTER IX--THE MARRIAGE

Mr. Snodgrass was obliged to walk into Irvine one evening, to get
rid of a raging tooth, which had tormented him for more than a week.

The operation was so delicately and cleverly performed by the
surgeon to whom he applied--one of those young medical gentlemen,

who, after having been educated for the army or navy, are obliged,
in this weak piping time of peace, to glean what practice they can