"Miss Carley isn't like the generality of young ladies," Mr. Whitelaw
answered with a glum look, and his kinswoman was fain to drop the
subject.

Alone with Ellen, sly Mrs. Tadman took occasion to launch out into
enthusiastic praises of her cousin; to which the girl listened in
profound silence, closely watched all the time by the woman's sharp gray
eyes. And then by degrees her tone changed ever so little, and she owned
that her kinsman was not altogether faultless; indeed it was curious to
perceive what numerous shortcomings were coexistent with those shining
merits of his.

"He has been a good friend to me," continued the matron; "that I never
have denied and never shall deny. But I have been a good servant to him;
ah! there isn't a hired servant as would toil and drudge, and watch and
pinch, as I have done to please him, and never have had payment from him
more than a new gown at Christmas, or a five-pound note after harvest.
And of course, if ever he marries, I shall have to look for a new home;
for I know too much of his ways, I daresay, for a wife to like to have me
about her--and me of an age when it seem a hard to have to go among
strangers--and not having saved sixpence, where I might have put by a
hundred pounds easy, if I hadn't been working without wages for a
relation. But I've not been called a servant, you see; and I suppose
Stephen thinks that's payment enough for my trouble. Goodness knows I've
saved him many a pound, and that he'll know when I'm gone; for he's near,
is Stephen, and it goes to his heart to part with a shilling."

"But why should you ever leave him, Mrs. Tadman?" Ellen asked kindly. "I
shouldn't think he could have a better housekeeper."

"Perhaps not," answered the widow, shaking her head with mysterious
significance; "but his wife won't think that; and when he's got a wife
he'll want her to be his housekeeper, and to pinch and scrape as I've
pinched and scraped for him. Lord help her!" concluded Mrs. Tadman, with a
faint groan, which was far from complimentary to her relative's character.

"But perhaps he never will marry," argued Ellen coolly.

"O, yes, he will, Miss Carley," replied Mrs. Tadman, with another
significant movement of her head; "he's set his heart on that, and he's set
his heart on the young woman he means to marry."

"He can't marry her unless she's willing to be his wife, any how," said
Ellen, reddening a little.

"O, he'll find a way to make her consent, M