e than his match, in all probability, in social
accomplishments. He expected, therefore, a certain amount of reflex
credit for bringing such a fine young fellow in his company, and a second
instalment of reputation from outshining him in conversation. This was
rather nice calculating, but Murray Bradshaw always calculated. With most
men life is like backgammon, half skill, and half luck, but with him it
was like chess. He never pushed a pawn without reckoning the cost, and
when his mind was least busy it was sure to be half a dozen moves ahead
of the game as it was standing.

Mr. Bradshaw gave Clement a pretty dinner enough for such a place as
Oxbow Village. He offered him some good wine, and would have made him
talk so as to show his lining, to use one of his own expressions, but
Clement had apparently been through that trifling experience, and could
not be coaxed into saying more than he meant to say. Murray Bradshaw was
very curious to find out how it was that he had become the victim of such
a rudimentary miss as Susan Posey. Could she be an heiress in disguise?
Why no, of course not; had not he made all proper inquiries about that
when Susan came to town? A small inheritance from an aunt or uncle, or
some such relative, enough to make her a desirable party in the eyes of
certain villagers perhaps, but nothing to allure a man like this, whose
face and figure as marketable possessions were worth say a hundred
thousand in the girl's own right, as Mr. Bradshaw put it roughly, with
another hundred thousand if his talent is what some say, and if his
connection is a desirable one, a fancy price,--anything he would fetch.
Of course not. Must have got caught when he was a child. Why the diavolo
didn't he break it off, then?

There was no fault to find with the modest entertainment at the
Parsonage. A splendid banquet in a great house is an admirable thing,
provided always its getting up did not cost the entertainer an inward
conflict, nor its recollection a twinge of economical regret, nor its
bills a cramp of anxiety. A simple evening party in the smallest village
is just as admirable in its degree, when the parlor is cheerfully
lighted, and the board prettily spread, and the guests are made to feel
comfortable without being reminded that anybody is making a painful
effort.

We know several of the young people who were there, and need not trouble
ourselves for the others. Myrtle Hazard had promised to come. Sh