husband of thirty long years. She often spoke
of him so; always, in the few months which
separated his death from hers, except when she
was more than commonly moved, and then she
would call her departed husband "that dear
angel."

But to go back to the story of the pearl suit
from Hamlet's

"When he came back from town," said Aunt
Bella, "bringing the telescopes and all sorts of
scientific instruments besides, he put a little
purple morocco case into my hands, and told me,
very pleasantly, that I must wear its contents
for his sake, and that he had bought them quite
a bargain, owing to the fashion of them having
somewhat gone out. Then he went into his
study, and shut himself in with his packing-cases
till tea-time. In the meanwhile of course I
opened the case, and there, child, lay the loveliest
pearl brooch and earrings, with a twist of seed
pearl for the neck! How sorry I felt, for I knew
I must pain him by begging him to send them
back, lest he should be more pained by seeing
me wear them. But for all that I could not help
standing before the glass and trying the pretty
twist round my old throat; but, Lord! child, it
made me look like a blackamoor, so I turned
away pretty quickly, and popped it into the
morocco case, and never looked at it again. It
pained me sorely to tell my beloved that indeed,
indeed, I could not wear his beautiful present,
and that with his leave I would very much
rather have it changed for the silver coffee-pot
we had long talked of buying.

"At first he thought me silly and unkind, and
was quite crusty about my refusal, and for three
or four days he hardly spoke a word to me, nor
would he let me do anything for him as usual
(the consequence of which was that he caught a
terrible chill from putting on his under-waist-
coats unaired, for he regularly put back in the
drawer those that I warmed and set out for him).
And all those days I did nothing but cry and
repent what I had done to pain my kind
husband, and twenty times I wanted to tell him I
would keep the pearl suit and wear it, or dress
myself out as a May-day queen, sooner than he
should be angry with me. But when he was
laid up with the sore-throat, he grew quite
pleasant again, and let me come about him, and
never so much as mentioned the cause I had
given him for vexation. And then I found out
that the morocco case had gone back to
Hamlet's in exchange for the tall silver coffee-pot
with the ebony handle, which stands in the
eating-room cupboard, and I do think I like it the
better because it cost me all those tears; for
you see after all, Boonie dear, Captain Vance
indulged me in the very thing I wished."

When godpapa returned from his walk, he
had always his superannuated pointer Duke
following at his heels. A respectable quadruped
was Duke, who spent the greater part of his
days grumbling in a remarkably small green
kennel in the court, and whom I consider as the
dog of the most imperturbable demeanour and
the stumpiest tail I ever saw. Godpapa Vance
always dressed for dinner; that is, he had a
whole armour suit of wraps to lay aside, and a
somewhat lighter panoply to put on I do
believe he changed his raiment with every breeze
that blew and, for some mysterious reason past
my finding out, a black ribbon always spanned
the stone-coloured waistcoat at dinner-time,
sustaining a small eye-glass, which I do not think
he ever used.

Dinner was rather a solemn affair, to be sure,
and neither Aunt Bella nor I seemed to be
talking our own talk while it lasted; but I used to
pardon the dulaess of the feast, in consideration
of its daintiness; and then we were soon
upstairs again, and godpapa went straight to his
studies or his slumbers, and did not appear in
the drawing-room for hours. In the interval,
Aunt Bella and I would trot in and out of the
flower-beds in the little square of garden over
the way, where bees and butterflies always
seemed more alert than elsewhere, round the
musky purple scabious bushes and the long
sprays of sweet blush roses at the gate. When
it was damp or windy, and we stayed in-doors,
an episode would sometimes occur, in which, to
my shame be it spoken, I used always to take
especial diversion.

I have mentioned the splendid cabbage-roses
which grew round the windows of the basement
story in Meadow-row. Those roses were the
object of frequent predatory attacks by the idle
boys of South-cove, as Aunt Bella well knew,
and she seemed to feel by instinct when a party
of young Bedouins were stealing round the
house-corner by the steps, to clutch a branch of
the fragrant flowers and scamper down the road
with their booty. In the first years when I
knew her, and even after her sight began to
fail, she would noiselessly raise the sash of the
corner window, just enough to put out her
head, and watch the small malefactors creeping
along the railings. But no sooner did they
stretch their hands towards the prize, than
up would go the sash to its full height with a
bang, and Aunt Bella, towering awfully in her
fortalice, would launch after the fugitives, as
they took to their heels, a volley of such
unearthly inarticulate noises, compounded of
groaning, shrieking, and cackling, that I am
sure I wonder how they had the courage
ever to return to their nefarious enterprise.
And to make the explosion of her wrath more
effective, the kitchen-door on the side steps
would be sure at such times to fly open, and
Tackett or Keziah would rush madly out, duster
in hand, make vigorous demonstration at the
retreating foe, and they would come back panting
in a few moments, distanced by about a quarter
of a mile.

I do not think I ever stood within the sacred
precincts of Godpapa Vance's study by
daylight. It was only in the evening dusk, by
special invitation, that we children were allowed
to put foot within that awful chamber, lined on
two sides with book-shelves, and on a third with
prim little black cabinets, filled with pale
unmeaning-looking shells and preserved beetles of