near you; and I think
myself, now that he is become so very steady a character, it does
require your consideration whether you ought not to permit him. He will
be a very good companion for Bramble, and they will get on well
together. I do not mean to say that it might not be more agreeable if
he were to remain at Greenwich, but he is your father, Tom, and you
should make some sacrifice for a parent."

"As far as I am concerned, Anderson, I most gladly consent. Bramble is
to live with us--that is arranged, and if no objections are raised by
others you may be sure of my acceding, and, indeed, if objections should
be raised, of persuading all I can."

"You can do no more, Tom," replied Anderson; "nor can more be expected."

This point was very satisfactorily arranged. Bramble and Bessy both
gave their cheerful consent, and it was settled that as soon as we had a
house to receive him, my father should quit Greenwich, and live with us.
The arguments of my father, added to the persuasions of Bramble and me,
had their due weight, and on the 13th of September, 1807, Bessy and I
exchanged our vows, and I embraced her as my own.

CHAPTER FIFTY TWO.

FINALE.

If the reader will refer back to the first part of this narrative, he
will find that I was born in the year 1786; and as I am writing this in
the year 1840, I am now fifty-four years old. I was but little more
than twenty-one when I married; I have, therefore, the experience of
thirty-two years of a married life; but I will not anticipate. I ended
the last chapter with my own union; I must now refer to those events
which followed close upon that period.

Sir James and Lady O'Connor had taken up their residence at Leamington,
then a small village, and not the populous place which it has since
become. After a few months' residence, during which I had repeated
letters from Lady O'Connor and Virginia, they were so pleased with the
locality and neighbourhood, that Sir James purchased a property of some
hundred acres, and added to a house which was upon it, so as to make it
a comfortable and elegant residence. Lady O'Connor, after the first
year, presented her husband with a son, and has since that been very
assiduous in increasing his family--more so, perhaps, than would have
been convenient to Sir James O'Connor's income at the time that he
purchased the property, had it not been that the increase of its value,
in consequence of a large portion of it having be