ntable
anywhere," returned Mattie, with a merry twinkle of the eye.

"That's what I wanted to know," said Mrs. Chapman with a bow, and a
slight motion backward. "And now, my daughter," she resumed quickly,
"this is a good time for having a very serious talk on a very important,
but very different matter. What we were talking about yesterday, you
know. I hope you have made up your mind to banish Toodleburg." Mrs.
Chapman drew herself up into a stately attitude, and assumed a look of
uncommon severity. "You know how much your parents dote on you, my
daughter, and how much depends on you to give the family a firm
standing." The lady tossed her head haughtily and pretentiously. Mattie
remained silent and thoughtful.

"Toodleburg's at the bottom of the sea--that's my opinion. And if he
stays there it wouldn't distress me--it wouldn't," resumed Mrs. Chapman,
giving way to her temper and becoming more earnest. Just then tears
gushed into Mattie's eyes, and as they coursed down her cheeks told the
tale of her sorrow.

"What I said was intended for good advice, my daughter, not to wound
your feelings," continued Mrs. Chapman. "Even if the young man should
not be at the bottom of the sea, we should never be presentable with him
attached to the family--never in the world. Such a name, and such common
people for parents! What would Bowling Green say, my daughter? We must
all yield to the force of circumstances; and the circumstances are all
against this Mr. Toodleburg tumbling himself into our family." She
paused suddenly, and again viewed her ponderous figure in the glass, now
adjusting one side of her skirts and then the other. "I wonder if this
dress really does become me? Green and orange are in harmony with a
complexion like mine," she said, turning to Mattie, and waiting for a
reply. But Mattie was trying to relieve her feelings of the grief that
was filling her eyes with tears.

"To return to what I was saying, my daughter, sentimental marriages, I
was going to say, (well, I will say it,) are fools' marriages. Yes, they
are. Your father understands that. Never would have got him--never in
this world--if I had been given to sentimental love. Toodleburg's a good
enough young man in his place--but he's never, never coming back, my
daughter. But even if he was to come back, there's no place for him in
our family. View these things, always do, through the eye of
philosophy--I do." Mrs. Chapman again paused, bowed her head
ad