of reading. On the eve before my long put-off
departure we were thus roaming; we had
to cross a hundred stiles—the choicest
blessings of this country I used to think them
—and once, instead of offering my hand to
help her over, I held out both my arms,
and, upon my life, George, the dear girl
jumped right into them; and that was how
I got to kiss her cheek."

"What shocking stories you are telling,
Robert," said Mrs. Chetwood, and certainly
she was then blushing up under her lace cap
to her white hair.

"Well, my dear, nobody was there except
Kate and myself, and I think I must know
what happened, at least as well as you do;
so," he continued, "after one more visit to
the farm-house, Kate and I were married;
she gave up all her healthy ways and country
pleasures to come and live with me in the
busy town; studious of others' happiness,
careful for others' pain; at all times forgetful
of herself: active and diligent, she had ever
leisure for a pleasant word and a kind action;
and for beauty, no maid nor wife in the world
was fit, I believe, to compare with her; to
you, George, who knew and loved our dearest
Gertrude, I need not describe her mother.
She was not long with me, but it soon
seemed as if it must have cost my life to
have parted with her; yet the girlish glory
faded, and the sparkling spirit fled, and the
day has been forgiven, though forgotten
never, which took my darling Katie from
my side."

The old man paused a little here. Mrs.
Chetwood kissed him softly upon the
cheek.

"My second wife," he resumed, "was not so
young, and certainly had not the outward
graces of my first. She was beautiful, too, in
the flower as Kate was in the bud; her face
had not the vivacity, nor her eyes the dancing
light of Katie's, but there sat such a serenity
upon her features, as we sometimes see upon
a lovely landscape when the sun is near its
setting; a look which no man ever tires of;
and Mary bore me children, and then, much
as I had loved the sapling, it seemed to me
that the full-fruited tree was dearer yet. She
was no country girl from the Devon dales,
but a town lady, bred. I had a great house
by that time, with all things fitting about me,
and my sphere was hers. The pearls suited
her pleasant brow, and crowned her still
raven tresses as becomingly as the single
rose in her hair had adorned simple Kate.
I think, if I may say so without ingratitude
for my present great happiness, and with the
leave of my dear Charlotte, that the happiest
hours of my life were spent during those
days, when our two children's voices rang
cheerily over the house, and some little
scheme of pleasure for them was my everyday
desire and Mary's. Even at the terrible
time when boy and girl were being taken
from us at once, never did their patient
mother seem more dear to me; from when the
hush of sickness stole upon us at first, to
the day when that white procession left our
doors, what a healing spirit was she! When
we thought that the thickly folded veil of
sorrow had fallen over us for ever, how
tenderly she put it aside!

"It must needs have happened that my
speech has here been melancholy, but indeed.
I should not speak of Mary so. She was the
blythest, cheerfullest, most comfortable
middle-aged wife that man ever had;
behind our very darkest trouble a smile
was always lying ready to struggle through
it, and what a light it shed! One of
your resigned immoveable females, who
accept every blessing as a temptation, and
submit, with precisely the same feelings to what
they call every chastening, would have killed
me in a week. George, my Mary acted at all
times according to her nature, and that nature
was as beautiful and blessed as ever fell to
the lot of womankind. You might well
think that Kate and Mary were two prizes,
great enough for one man to draw out of the
marriage lottery, and yet I drew another.
When I lost my beloved Mary, my third wife
took her place in my inmost heart.

"Kiss me, Charlotte," said the old man,
tenderly, and again she kissed him on the
cheek. "And now," continued he, "let us
fill our glasses, for the New Year is coming
on apace; and please to drink to the memory
of my two wives, and to the health of her who
is still left to me. The two first toasts must
necessarily be somewhat painful to my dear
Charlotte, and we will, therefore, receive
them in silence, but the third we must drink
with all the honours."

So after those, he stood up, glass in hand;
and said to her,

"Kate, Mary, Charlotte,—bride, matron,
and dame in one, to whom I have been
wedded this half-century,—for I have had
no other wife, George,—God bless you,
dear old heart! We have had a merry Christmas,
as we have ever had, and I trust it may
be permitted to us to have, still together, one
more happy New Year. Hip! hip! hip!
Hurrah!" and the echoes of our three times
three seemed cheerily to roam all night about
Tremadyn House.

Now ready, Price Five Shillings and Sixpence, cloth boards,
                           THE TWELFTH VOLUME
                                             OF
                            HOUSEHOLD WORDS
         containing from No.280 to No. 303 (both inclusive)
                and the extra Christmas Number.