The path I found sufficiently smooth for a
rapid advance. That afternoon I brought
matters to a crisis. Spare me, my gentle
readers, the description of an event upon
which hang often the destinies of our life,
and which but too often takes place in the
most awkward, not to say ridiculous, manner.
I will only say, that I presented Julie with
the cross that was to have had such wonderful
powers eight or ten days before,—not,
however, as a plummet to sound her sentiments
towards me, but as a first offering of
affection after we were engaged.

That very night, too, Antoine came to my
apartment to ask my opinion of Georgette.
I gave it to him frankly.

"If she had not a sister, I would have
married her myself."

"That is just what I want to do," said he,
interrupting me. "But what do you think
old Gigot would say if I proposed"—

"Why what he has always said, that you
are an honest hardworking fellow, have good
stout principles, will do well in the world if
you persevere steadily, and"—

"And will you come over with me this
evening; you can help me." I understood
him.

"It is dangerous for a third person to
interfere," I said; "but what does Georgette
say?"

"She is content."

"Bah! then the old governor is not one to
thwart his daughter's wishes. I give you joy
of your enterprise. Put on your hat and let
us go across."

We did so; and that same night it was
arranged that Antoine and Georgette should
be married on the same day as Julie and I.
We chose the fourteenth of February; and
if the day on which one is married can
influence the future destinies of a man, I advise
all who aspire to be happy husbands to select
that day.

POPE'S SIR JOHN CUTLER.

IN the Church of St. Margaret's,
Westminster—that church immediately adjoining
the north side of Westminster Abbey, wherein
Fast-day sermons are still preached to the
collective wisdom of the House of Commons
—lies Sir John Cutler, Knight and Baronet
citizen and grocer of London; whom, in his
eighty-fifth year, Heaven was pleased to
remove from a further pursuit of money-making,
on the fifteenth day of April, sixteen hundred
and ninety-three. The stone which covers his
grave is uninscribed, and the precise place
which holds his body is unknown to either
sexton or pew-opener.

In the hall of the Company of Grocers of
the city of London—a fine hall still dedicated
to good dinners—is a full-length portrait of
the aforesaid Sir John Cutler, Knight and
Baronet, together with his statue,—drawn,
cut, erected, and placed, at the expense of the
Grocers' Company, in the life-time of the said
Sir John; and repaired and renewed by the
court of assistants of the company, some of
whom are still alive to do full justice to the
dinners of the aforesaid company.

In what was once the College of Physicians
in Warwick Lane, was to be seen, while
Cutler was still alive, a portrait-statue of the
city grocer, with this inscription:—

       Omnis Cutleri cedat Labor Amphitheatro.

Both statue and inscription were erected and
cut at the expense of the fellows of the
college, and the building itself was known
by the nick-name of Cutler's College. Cutler
promised more than he gave, and the too grateful
fellows resented their ill-usage by obliterating
the inscription, though they suffered
the statue to remain; and it is still to be seen
in what remains of the old College of Physicians.
Gratitude in advance is not very common,
and, in the case of the college and
Cutler, it met (if we trust the physicians)
with no reward.

We first hear of the City knight and
baronet in the year of the Restoration:—

           In days of ease, when now the weary sword
          Was sheathed, and luxury with Charles restored.

Mr. Cutler was then in his fifty-second year,
and his contributions to the needy exchequer
of King Charles the Second were such that
he was made a knight and baronet by the king
in the first year of his return. He was at
that time possessed of the advowson of
the living of Deptford, and the "good" Mr.
Evelyn spoke to him about presenting a fit
pastor to his parish church.

Our next information relating to the citizen
and grocer is derived from Mr. Pepys. The
Clerk of the Acts met Sir John at a coffee-
house, where his discourse was well worth
hearing, "and where he did fully make out
that the trade of England is as great as ever
it was—only in more hands; and that, of all
trades, there is a greater number than ever
there was, by reason of men's taking more
'prentices." Here we see the sensible merchant:
his remaining entries reveal the observing
and the worldly-wise man. A year later Pepys
met him again at a coffee-house, and among
other things heard Sir John Cutler say, "that
of his own experience, in time of thunder, so
many barrels of beer as have a piece of
iron laid upon them will not be soured, and
the others will." Mr. Pepys's next entry
stands thus:—"To Sir R. Ford's, where Sir
Richard Browne, and here, by discourse, I
find they greatly cry out against the choice of
Sir John Cutler to be treasurer of Paul's,
upon condition that he gives fifteen hundred
pounds towards it; and it seems he did give
it upon condition that he might be treasurer
for the work, which they say will be worth
three times as much money, and talk as if his
being chosen to the office will make people
backward to give; but I think him as likely
a man as either of them, and better." The