mes of Hobgoblin,
Ghoul, Gnome, Ogre, etc. Yet she did not dislike her solemn suitor--she
never had taken the matter so seriously as that! And he on his part bore
the eccentricities of the elf with matchless patience, for he loved her,
as I said, to fatuity--doted on her with a passion that increased with
ripening years, and of late consumed him like a fever.

And then there was her mother, last named because, whatever she should
have been, she really was the least important of Jacquelina's teachers.
Fear was the key-note of Mrs. L'Oiseau's character--the key-stone in the
arch of her religious faith--she feared everything--the opinion of the
world, the unfaithfulness of friends, changes in the weather, reverses
of fortune, pain, sickness, sorrow, want, labor!

Now the time had not yet come for this proposed marriage to shock the
merry maiden. She was "ower young to marry yet."

So thought not the commodore; for a year past, since his niece had
attained the age of fourteen, he had been worrying himself and the
elders of the family to have the marriage solemnized, "before the little
devil shall have time to get some other notion into her erratic head,"
he said. All were opposed to him, holding over his head the only rod he
dreaded, the opinion of the world.

"What would people say if you were to marry your niece of fourteen to a
man of thirty-four?" they urged.

"But I tell you, young men are beginning to pay attention to her now,
and I can't take her to church that some jackanapes don't come capering
around her, and the minx will get some whim in her head like Edith
did--I know she will! Just see how Edith disappointed me! ungrateful
huzzy! after my bringing her up and educating her, for her to do so!
While, if she had married Grim when I wanted her to do it, by this time
I'd have had my grandchil--! I mean nieces and nephews climbing about my
knees. But by ----! I won't be frustrated this time!"

And so Jacquelina was kept more secluded than ever. Secluded from
society, but not from nature. The forest became her haunt. And a chance
traveler passing through it, and meeting her fay-like form, might well
suppose he was deceived with the vision of a wood-nymph.

The effervescent spirits of the elf had to expend themselves in the same
way. As a child she had ever been as remarkable for surprising feats of
agility as for fun, frolic, mischief, and _diablerie_. And every one of
these traits augmented with her growth. Fe