age to retire from business. The old man
was absent from England when Horace Danforth left it, and it was not
till his return that full satisfaction on the subject had been obtained,
as it was judged unwise by Mr. Decker to awaken public attention by
investigations which his uncle's return would probably render
unnecessary. When he did return, and the subject was cautiously unfolded
to him, he spent many minutes in _pishing_ and _pshawing_ at the folly
and impetuosity of young Baronets, who, knowing nothing of the tenure on
which they hold their estates, cannot at least wait till they consult
wiser people before they throw them away. The entail of nearly two
centuries ago had, it seems, been set aside in little more than one, by
an improvident father and son, who had in fact greatly diminished the
very fine property so entailed, though most of it had been since
recovered by the care of their successors. The intelligence thus
conveyed to him who was now once more Sir Horace Danforth Maitland, was
of mingled sweet and bitter. He could not be insensible to the joy of
returning to the home of his childhood and the people among whom he had
grown to manhood, yet neither could he leave, without tender regrets,
that in which he had first learned to love, and to live a true, a
noble, and a happy life.

When Mary was first saluted as Lady Maitland by Edward, she turned a
glance of inquiry upon her husband, and then upon her father, for both
were present by previous arrangement; and as she read a confirmation of
the fact in their smiling faces, the color faded from hers, and after a
moment's vain effort to contend against her painful emotion, she burst
into tears.

"Your father has promised to spend his life with us, dearest," said Sir
Horace Maitland, as he threw his arm around her and drew her to his
side.

"But this dear home," sobbed Mary; "this people, for whom and with whom
we have lived so happily."

"All that made this home dear, my daughter, you will take with you to
another home."

"And there, too," interposed Sir Horace, "my Mary will find a people to
enlighten and to bless, over whom her influence will be unbounded, and
to whom she will prove an angel of consolation."

"And can you carry your American life to your English home?" she asked
of her husband, smiling through her tears.

"As much of it as is independent of outward circumstances, Mary--its
spirit, its aims; for they belong to a Christian life, and th