elf-will, there was not so much as the shadow
of anything false in her. I never remember her breaking her word; I
never remember her saying No, and meaning Yes. I can call to mind, in
her childhood, more than one occasion when the good little soul took
the blame, and suffered the punishment, for some fault committed by a
playfellow whom she loved. Nobody ever knew her to confess to it, when
the thing was found out, and she was charged with it afterwards. But
nobody ever knew her to lie about it, either. She looked you straight
in the face, and shook her little saucy head, and said plainly, "I won't
tell you!" Punished again for this, she would own to being sorry for
saying "won't;" but, bread and water notwithstanding, she never told
you. Self-willed--devilish self-willed sometimes--I grant; but the
finest creature, nevertheless, that ever walked the ways of this lower
world. Perhaps you think you see a certain contradiction here? In
that case, a word in your ear. Study your wife closely, for the next
four-and-twenty hours. If your good lady doesn't exhibit something in
the shape of a contradiction in that time, Heaven help you!--you have
married a monster.

I have now brought you acquainted with Miss Rachel, which you will
find puts us face to face, next, with the question of that young lady's
matrimonial views.

On June the twelfth, an invitation from my mistress was sent to a
gentleman in London, to come and help to keep Miss Rachel's birthday.
This was the fortunate individual on whom I believed her heart to be
privately set! Like Mr. Franklin, he was a cousin of hers. His name was
Mr. Godfrey Ablewhite.

My lady's second sister (don't be alarmed; we are not going very deep
into family matters this time)--my lady's second sister, I say, had a
disappointment in love; and taking a husband afterwards, on the neck or
nothing principle, made what they call a misalliance. There was terrible
work in the family when the Honourable Caroline insisted on marrying
plain Mr. Ablewhite, the banker at Frizinghall. He was very rich and
very respectable, and he begot a prodigious large family--all in his
favour, so far. But he had presumed to raise himself from a low station
in the world--and that was against him. However, Time and the progress
of modern enlightenment put things right; and the mis-alliance passed
muster very well. We are all getting liberal now; and (provided you can
scratch me, if I scratch you) what do I care,