ry, all the luxuries, and airs, and graces of
the town--but little impromptu efforts in the same direction in which
Mrs Grove had all the trouble, and her guests all the pleasure. Very
charming little fetes her guests generally pronounced them to be.
Arthur enjoyed them vastly, and all the more that it never entered into
his head, that he was in a measure the occasion of them all. He enjoyed
the companionship of pleasant people, brought together in those pleasant
circumstances. He enjoyed the sight of the green earth, and the blue
water, the sound of the summer winds among the hills, the songs of birds
amid rustling leaves and waving boughs, until he came to enjoy, at last
the guardianship of the fair Fanny, generally his on those occasions;
and to associate her pretty face and light laughter with his enjoyment
of all those pleasant things.

Everything went on naturally and quietly. There was no open throwing
them together to excite speculation in the minds of beholders, or
uncomfortable misgivings in the minds of those chiefly concerned. Quite
the contrary. If any watchful fairy had suggested to Arthur the
possibility of such a web, as the skillful mamma was weaving around him,
he would have laughed at the idea as the suggestion of a very
ill-natured, evil-minded sprite indeed. Did not mamma keep watchful
eyes on Fanny always? Had she not many and many a time, interrupted
little confidences on the part of the young lady, at the recollection of
which he was sometimes inclined to smile? Had she not at all times, and
in all places, acted the part of a prudent mamma to her pretty
step-daughter, and of a considerate hostess to him, her unworthy guest?

And if the fairy, in self-justification, had ventured further to
insinuate, that there is more than one kind of prudence, and that the
prudence of Mrs Grove was of another and higher kind, than a simple
youth could be supposed to comprehend, his enlightenment might not yet
have been accomplished. If it had been averred that mamma's faith, in
her daughter's tact and conversational powers was not sufficient to
permit her to allow them to be too severely tried, he might have paused
to recall her little airs and gestures, and to weigh the airy nothings
from those pretty lips, and he could not but have acknowledged that
mamma's faithlessness was not surprising. As to the ultimate success of
the sprite in opening his eyes, or in breaking the invisible meshes
which were