n a way all unknown
to Chitty.

CHAPTER V.

A RETURNED CALIFORNIAN.

At last, Matthew Maltboy was engaged. He had, since twenty, been
dallying on the edge of a betrothal. Now he had taken the momentous step
into that anomalous region which lies between celibacy and married
life, where a man is not exactly a bachelor, nor yet, by any means, a
husband. It is the land in which the dim enchantments of romance begin
to assume the plain outlines of reality. It is the land in which the
pledge of undying affection, breathed, at some rapturous moment, into a
delicate, inclining ear, becomes invested with awful meaning, and has a
value in the legal market like a bond and mortgage. It is the land where
the excitement of pursuit is over, and the game is securely cornered,
but not yet in hand. It is the spot where the ardent huntsman of Love
pauses to look back, and ceases to bend his longing gaze into the
distance beyond.

How it came to pass that the unreliable Matthew Maltboy had become the
affianced one of the pleasant widow Frump, it is not the purpose of this
history to record. Let it suffice to say, that the mutual aversion which
they felt, some months before, at Mr. Whedell's house, on New Year's
day, was the starting point in their course of true love. Such an
aversion, subsequently smoothed away, is often the most promising
beginning of a courtship.

Mrs. Frump had frequently met Matthew on the street, and been gratified
with his deferential bow. His bulk, to which, as a rotund lady, she had
taken an antipathy, seemed to dwindle down as it was looked at. Matthew,
whose ideal was a delicate woman with observable shoulder blades, had
also, by repeated sights of Mrs. Frump, become reconciled to her ample
proportions. Meantime, they had heard much, incidentally, of each other
through Marcus Wilkeson. Matthew had come to esteem Mrs. Frump for her
affectionate devotion to old Van Quintem; and Mrs. Frump had secretly
admired the powerful though silent legal ability displayed by Mr.
Maltboy in the inquisition before Coroner Bullfast.

One night, Matthew, accompanied Marcus to his old friend's house; and,
on the second night following, this couple were engaged--a happy event,
which was brought about no less by the widow's experience, and
conviction that there was no time to lose, than by Matthew's
impulsive ardor.

He had been engaged ten days; and so entirely had he talked out the time
to the widow, that it seemed si