e summers
had "dragged their slow length along." What, then, to do? At fifteen, or
even at twenty-one (for I had now passed my fifth olympiad) five years
in prospect are very much the same as five hundred. In vain we besieged
the old gentleman with importunities. Here was a piece de resistance (as
Messieurs Ude and Careme would say) which suited his perverse fancy to a
T. It would have stiffed the indignation of Job himself, to see how much
like an old mouser he behaved to us two poor wretched little mice. In
his heart he wished for nothing more ardently than our union. He had
made up his mind to this all along. In fact, he would have given ten
thousand pounds from his own pocket (Kate's plum was her own) if he
could have invented any thing like an excuse for complying with our
very natural wishes. But then we had been so imprudent as to broach
the subject ourselves. Not to oppose it under such circumstances, I
sincerely believe, was not in his power.

I have said already that he had his weak points; but in speaking of
these, I must not be understood as referring to his obstinacy: which was
one of his strong points--"assurement ce n' etait pas sa foible." When
I mention his weakness I have allusion to a bizarre old-womanish
superstition which beset him. He was great in dreams, portents, et id
genus omne of rigmarole. He was excessively punctilious, too, upon small
points of honor, and, after his own fashion, was a man of his word,
beyond doubt. This was, in fact, one of his hobbies. The spirit of his
vows he made no scruple of setting at naught, but the letter was a bond
inviolable. Now it was this latter peculiarity in his disposition,
of which Kates ingenuity enabled us one fine day, not long after our
interview in the dining-room, to take a very unexpected advantage, and,
having thus, in the fashion of all modern bards and orators, exhausted
in prolegomena, all the time at my command, and nearly all the room at
my disposal, I will sum up in a few words what constitutes the whole
pith of the story.

It happened then--so the Fates ordered it--that among the naval
acquaintances of my betrothed, were two gentlemen who had just set foot
upon the shores of England, after a year's absence, each, in foreign
travel. In company with these gentlemen, my cousin and I, preconcertedly
paid uncle Rumgudgeon a visit on the afternoon of Sunday, October the
tenth,--just three weeks after the memorable decision which had so
cruelly d