other's drawing-room around
him. Ah, yes, dear readers--my male readers of course I mean--were
not those minutes under the lamp-post always very pleasant?

But Graham encountered none of this feeling when he discussed the
same subject with Albert's mother. She was sufficiently alive to the
material view of the matter, and knew how much of a man's married
happiness depends on his supplies of bread and butter. Six hundred
pounds! Mr. Graham was very kind--very kind indeed. She hadn't a word
to say against Mary Snow. She had seen her, and thought her very
pretty and modest looking. Albert was certainly warmly attached to
the young lady. Of that she was quite certain. And she would say this
of Albert,--that a better-disposed young man did not exist anywhere.
He came home quite regular to his meals, and spent ten hours a day
behind the counter in Mr. Balsam's shop--ten hours a day, Sundays
included, which Mrs. Fitzallen regarded as a great drawback to the
medical line--as should I also, most undoubtedly. But six hundred
pounds would make a great difference. Mrs. Fitzallen little doubted
but that sum would tempt Mr. Balsam into a partnership, or perhaps
the five hundred, leaving one hundred for furniture. In such a case
Albert would spend his Sundays at home, of course. After that, so
much having been settled, Felix Graham got into an omnibus and took
himself back to his own chambers.

So far was so good. This idea of a model wife had already become a
very expensive idea, and in winding it up to its natural conclusion
poor Graham was willing to spend almost every shilling that he could
call his own. But there was still another difficulty in his way. What
would Snow pere say? Snow pere was, he knew, a man with whom dealings
would be more difficult than with Albert Fitzallen. And then, seeing
that he had already promised to give his remaining possessions to
Albert Fitzallen, with what could he bribe Snow pere to abandon that
natural ambition to have a barrister for his son-in-law? In these
days, too, Snow pere had derogated even from the position in which
Graham had first known him, and had become but little better than a
drunken, begging impostor. What a father-in-law to have had! And then
Felix Graham thought of Judge Staveley.

He sent, however, to the engraver, and the man was not long in
obeying the summons. In latter days Graham had not seen him
frequently, having bestowed his alms through Mary, and was shocked at
the