hment
of those barely-furnished rooms in honour of his bright young bride;
although Mrs. Tadman urged upon him the necessity of new muslin curtains
here, and new dimity there, a coat or so of paint and new whitewash in
such and such rooms, and other small revivals of the same character; not
sorry to be able to remind him in this indirect manner that marriage was
an expensive thing.

"A young woman like that will expect to see things bright and cheerful
about her," said Mrs. Tadman, in her most plausible tone, and rubbing her
thin hands with an air of suppressed enjoyment. "If you were going to
marry a person of your own age, it would be different, of course; but
young women have such extravagant notions. I could see Miss Carley did
not think much of the furniture when I took her over the house on
new-year's-day. She said the rooms looked gloomy, and that some of them
gave her the horrors, and so on. If you don't have the place done up a
bit at first, you'll have to get it done at last, depend upon it; a young
wife like that will make the money spin, you may be sure."

"Will she?" said Mr. Whitelaw, with a satisfied grin. "That's my
look-out. I don't think you've had very much chance of making my money
spin, eh, Mrs. Tadman?"

The widow cast up her hands and eyes towards the ceiling of the parlour
where they were sitting.

"Goodness knows I've had precious little chance of doing that, Stephen
Whitelaw," she replied.

"I should reckon not; and my wife will have about as much."

There was some cold comfort in this. Mrs. Tadman had once hoped that if
her cousin ever exalted any woman to the proud position of mistress of
Wyncomb, she herself would be that favoured individual; and it was a hard
thing to see a young person, who had nothing but a certain amount of good
looks to recommend her, raised to that post of honour in her stead. It
was some consolation, therefore, to discover that the interloper was to
reign with very limited powers, and that none of the privileges or
indulgences usually granted to youthful brides by elderly bridegrooms
were to be hers. It was something, too, for Mrs. Tadman to be allowed to
remain beneath the familiar shelter of that gloomy old house, and this
boon had been granted to her at Ellen's express request.

"I suppose she's going to turn lazy as soon as she's married, or she
wouldn't have wanted to keep you," the farmer said in rather a sulky
manner, after he had given Mrs. Tadman his