veness; albeit it was not difficult to perceive that,
sorrowfully as had passed her noon of prime, an "Indian summer" of the
soul was rising upon her brightened existence, and already with its first
faint flushes lighting up her meek, doubting eyes, and pale, changing
countenance. Willy, her feeble-minded child, frisked and gambolled by
their side; and altogether, a happier group than they would, I fancy,
have been difficult to find in all broad England.

The next week they were married; and one of the partners in the firm by
which Mason was employed happening to dine with us on the day of the
wedding, the conversation turned for a few minutes on the bridegroom's
character and prospects.

"He has the ring of true metal in him," I remarked; "and is, I should
suppose, a capital seaman?"

"A first-rate one," replied Mr. Roberts. "Indeed so high is my father's
opinion of him, that he intends to confer upon him the command of a fine
brig now building for us in the Thames, and intended for the West India
trade. He possesses also singular courage and daring. Twice, under very
hazardous circumstances, he has successfully risked his life to save men
who had fallen overboard. He is altogether a skilful, gallant seaman."

"Such a man," observed another of the company, "might surely have aspired
higher than to the hand of Esther Woodford, dove-eyed and interesting as
she may be?"

"Perhaps so," returned Mr. Roberts a little curtly; "though
he, it seems, could not have thought so. Indeed it is chiefly of
simple-hearted, chivalrous-minded men like Mason that it can
be with general truth observed--

'On revient toujours a ses premiers amours.'"

The subject then dropped, and it was a considerable time afterwards, and
under altogether altered circumstances, when the newly-married couple
once more crossed my path in life.

It was about eight months after his marriage--though he had been
profitably enough employed in the interim--that Henry Mason, in
consequence of the welcome announcement that the new brig was at last
ready for her captain and cargo, arrived in London to enter upon his new
appointment.

"These lodgings, Esther," said he, as he was preparing to go out, soon
after breakfast, on the morning after his arrival, "are scarcely the
thing; and as I, like you, am a stranger in Cockney-land, I had better
consult some of the firm upon the subject, before we decide upon
permanent ones. In the meantime, you and Willy must