m of such practices, or of an
over-fondness for the bottle, or of a passion for loose company. He
hunts sometimes, and fishes and goes a birding, and he has a pretty
fancy for the making of salmon-flies, in the which pursuit, I conclude,
there is much ingenuity, and no manner of harm, fish being given to us
for food, and the devising how best to snare the creatures entirely
Lawful.

Lilias Dangerous has been wedded to Edward Marriner these two years. It
was at first my design to buy the youth a Pair of Colours, and to let
him see the world and the usages of honourable warfare for a year or
two; but my Lilias could not bear the thought of her young Ensign's
coming home without an arm or a leg, or perchance being slain in some
desperate conflict with savage Indians, or scarcely less savage
Americans; and I did not press my plan of giving Edward for a time to
the service of the King. He, I am bound to say, was eager to take up a
Commission; but the tears and entreaties of my Daughter, who thinks War
the wickedest of crimes, and the shedding of human blood a wholly
Unpardonable Thing, prevailed. So they were Married, and are Happy; and
I am sure, now, that were I to lose either of them, it would break the
old man's heart.

My Lilias is tall and slender, her skin is very white, her hair a rich
brown, her eyes very large and clear and blue. But that I am too old to
be vain, I might be twitted with Conceit when I state that she holds
these advantages of person less from her Mother than from myself, her
loving Father. Not that I was so comely in my young days; but my
Grandmother before me was of the same fair Image that I so delight to
look upon in Lilias. She was tall, and white, and brown-haired, and
blue-eyed. She had Lilias's small and daintily-fashioned hands and feet,
or rather Lilias has hers. To me these features were only transmitted in
a meaner degree. I was a big-boned lusty lad, with flowing brown locks,
an unfreckled skin, and an open eye; but my Grandmother's Face and Form
have renewed themselves in my child. At twenty she is as beautiful as
her Great-grandmother must have been at that same sunny time, as I am
told and know that Lady was: albeit when I remember her she was nearly
Ninety years of age.

Yes; Lilias's eyes are very blue; but they are always soft and tender
and pitiful in their regard. Her Great-grandmother's had, when she was
moved, a Strange Wild look that awed and terrified the beholders. Only