Pringleson is going to stay and dine with us, en
famille. If you are disengaged, I hope you will
stay too."

Mr. Shepherd was delighted, and led Miss
Stalman down in high spirits.

After dinner neither gentleman appeared
conversationally inclined, and both repaired to the
drawing-room so soon that they found Mrs.
Stalman examining her accounts. An excellent
knowledge of arithmetic had frequently enabled
Mr. Pringleson to be of great service to Mrs.
Stalman, who was not strong on that head,
and hitherto he had always been happy to assist
her. To-night, however, when his aid was once
more called in, the thought struck him that
the knowledge of arithmetic was an inconvenient
knowledge. It might have been better
to have had some knowledge of music; in that
case he could have sat by Laura in the back
drawing-room, could have played her
accompaniments, and turned her leaves. Surely he
might have made a better thing of it than Mr.
Shepherd was making of his songs! Besides;
Mr. Pringleson had not come there to do
compound addition and listen to feeble tenor melody.

CHAPTER V.

MRS. STALMAN'S reverential opinion of Mr.
Pringleson remained unimpaired, and she
continued to refer all her difficulties to him as
regularly as ever. But what was more
important still, Laura seemed to welcome him
now-a-days with almost greater cordiality than
before. All their old jokes and confidences
were religiously preserved. However
unexpectedly he might appear, whatever she was
doing, she always found him out in a second.
Even when occupied in waltzing with Mr.
Shepherd (a more frequent occurrence than her older
friend liked), she always smiled at him over her
partner's shoulder, in a way that all but
compensated him for the vexation of seeing her so
occupied.

Mr. Pringleson's familiar intercourse with
the Stalmans soon gave rise to a report which
annoyed him unaccountably. He had always
considered Mr. Stevens, the solicitor, rather
an underbred person; but there was not the
slightest doubt of it when that person called
him "a sly fellow who knew on which side his
bread was buttered, and who was evidently
going in for the rich widow!" This vulgarity
was quite unpardonable. Mrs. Stalman was a
good five years older than he was, and every
one knows that, given a man and woman of
forty, the woman is decidedly elderly while the
man is in the prime of life. After all, a great
many men did marry wives who were much
younger than themselves. There were people
of authority, too, who stoutly affirmed that
unless there were at least fifteen years of
seniority on the husband's side the
matrimonial ship would probably be wrecked. Mr.
Pringleson thought of these things continually.
Mrs. Stalman would often interrupt his
meditations by endeavouring to get up a conversation
with him about her daughter's marrying;
but she found it extremely difficult to interest
him in the subject. "I suppose men don't care
about such things after a certain age," was her
wise solution of the difficulty.

So no conversation had been held upon the
subject, when one day Mr. Pringleson called as
usual. Only Mrs. Stalman was visible.

"Not at home to any one else," said she to
the servant. Her triumphant tone made Mr.
Pringleson look up uneasily. "My dear friend,"
said she, with a radiant smile, "I am so glad
you are come! I have expected you every day
for this week past. I thought of writing, but
I didn't know what to do, quite."

"Well?"

"Well! My dear girl, Laura, is engaged to
be married. There! Now I have told you, I feel
so relieved. For though it is very delightful to
see them so happy, still I have never been quite
easy. But now I know you approve, I shall be
as happy as they are."

Mr. Pringleson had been balancing his hat
between his knees. It fell off his knees and he
stooped to pick it up, and then carried it to a
distant table before answering. He looked very
serious as he returned to his seat.

"You have not told me who he is, Mrs.
Stalman."

"Haven't I? Really? But I am so excited
and agitated that I am always making mistakes.
Mr. Payne Shepherd. As I dare say you will
have guessed."

"Yes," said he, getting up and strolling to
the ferns in the back room. Mrs. Stalman was
called away, and in her absence Laura entered.
Mr. Pringleson started at the sound of her
voice, and coming hastily forward took both her
hands. "Your mother has told me," was all he
could say.

"Has she?" cried Laura, the colour coming
into her cheeks. "And I so wanted to tell you
myself! I could not bear the idea of your
hearing it from any one but me, so I would not
let mamma write. Are you glad, Bluebeard?"

"No, dear," said he, "I am not glad to think
of losing you."

"As if you could lose me! I will not
submit to be lost! And besides, you must be glad
because I am so happy. And you will like him
very much, I am sure, won't you?"

"He wrote very bad exercises, Laura; I
don't know how I shall be able to manage it,"
said he, trying very hard to smile.

Ah! It was hard work. Laura made no
secret of her love, and gloried in showing it.
As for Mr. Shepherd, Mr. Pringleson could not
look at him for a sufficiently long time together
to see how much or how little he might be in
love. Yes. It was hard work to appear pleased
and interested, and to seem to devote long
hours of attention to Mrs. Stalman's discourses!

By-and-by preparations for the marriage
began to be talked about. "Mr. Stevens has
been speaking to me about the settlements,"
said Mrs. Stalman. "It seems there will have
to be trustees. You will be one, of course?"
But here Mr. Pringleson was very resolute.
"I would far rather not have the responsibility.