re would be all the trouble
and the disgrace of a separate purse. He felt that there would be
disgrace in having the fish and champagne, which were consumed in his
own house,--paid for by his wife without reference to him. What if the
lady had a partiality for champagne? He knew nothing about it, and would
know nothing about it, except when he saw it in her heightened color.
Despatched crabs for supper! He always went to bed at ten, and had a
tumbler of barley-water brought to him,--a glass of barley-water with
just a squeeze of lemon-juice.

He saw ruin before him. No doubt she was a good manager, but she would
be a good manager for herself. Would it not be better for him to stand
the action for breach of promise, and betake himself to Miss Puffle? But
Miss Puffle was fifty, and there could be no doubt that the lady ought
to be younger than the gentleman. He was much distressed in mind. If he
broke off with Miss Thoroughbung, ought he to do so at once, before she
had had time to put the matter into the hands of the lawyer? And on what
plea should he do it? Before he went to bed that night he did draw out a
portion of a letter, which, however, was never sent:

"MY DEAR MISS THOROUGHBUNG,--In the views which we both promulgated this
morning I fear that there was some essential misunderstanding as to the
mode of life which had occurred to both of us. You, as was so natural at
your age, and with your charms, have not been slow to anticipate a
coming period of uncheckered delights. Your allusion to a pony-carriage,
and other incidental allusions,"--he did not think it well to mention
more particularly the fish and the champagne,--"have made clear the sort
of future life which you have pictured to yourself. Heaven forbid that I
should take upon myself to find fault with anything so pleasant and so
innocent! But my prospects of life are different, and in seeking the
honor of an alliance with you I was looking for a quiet companion in my
declining years, and it might be also to a mother to a possible future
son. When you honored me with an unmistakable sign of your affection, on
my going, I was just about to explain all this. You must excuse me if my
mouth was then stopped by the mutual ardor of our feeling. I was about
to say--" But he had found it difficult to explain what he had been
about to say, and on the next morning, when the time for writing had
come, he heard news which detained him for the day, and then the
opportu