doctor dear, and you'll see.'

'Read all this! thank you, Ma'am; I read it a month ago,' said the
doctor gruffly.

'Oh! no--this--only there--you see--_here_,' and she indicated a
particular advertisement, which we here reprint for the reader's
instruction; and thus it ran--

"MARY MATCHWELL'S most humble Respects attend the Nobility
and Gentry. She has the Honour to acquaint them that she transacts
all Business relative to Courtship and Marriage, with the utmost
Dispatch and Punctuality. She has, at a considerable Expense,
procured a complete List of all the unmarried Persons of both Sexes
in this Kingdom, with an exact Account of their Characters,
Fortunes, Ages, and Persons. Any Lady or Gentleman, by sending a
Description of the Husband or Wife they would chuse, shall be
informed where such a One is to be had, and put in a Method for
obtaining him, or her, in the speediest Manner, and at the smallest
Expense. Mrs. Matchwell's Charges being always proportioned to the
Fortunes of the Parties, and not to be paid till the Marriage takes
place. She hopes the Honour and Secrecy she will observe in her
Dealings, will encourage an unfortunate Woman, who hath experienced
the greatest Vicissitudes of Life, as will be seen in her Memoirs,
which are shortly to be published under the Title of 'Fortune's
Football.' All Letters directed to M. M., and sent Post paid to the
Office where this Paper is published, shall be answered with
Care."'

'Yes, yes, I remember that--a cheating gipsy--why, it's going on
still--I saw it again yesterday, I think--a lying jade!--and this is the
rogue that troubles you?' said Toole with his finger on the paragraph,
as the paper lay on the table.

'Give it to me, doctor, dear. I would not have them see it for the
world--and--and--oh! doctor--sure you wouldn't tell.'

'Augh, bother!--didn't I swear my soul, Ma'am; and do you think I'm
going to commit a perjury about "Mary Matchwell"--phiat!'

Well, with much ado, and a great circumbendibus, and floods of tears,
and all sorts of deprecations and confusions, out came the murder at
last.

Poor Mrs. Mack had a duty to perform by her daughter. Her brother was
the best man in the world; but what with 'them shockin' forfitures' in
her father's time (a Jacobite granduncle had forfeited a couple of
town-lands, value L37 per annum, in King William's time, and