reme goodness. It was his fine old way
of bestowing an inestimable blessing upon all the plump younger women of
his acquaintance, and the benediction was conferred on the slightest
pretexts, and impartially, up to a certain age.

"Am I to construe what I have seen and heard, my dear, as equivalent to
the conclusion of my guardianship?" he asked, smilingly.

"Oh, please don't be so ridiculous--oh, I never was so exquisitely
nervous," pleaded the helpless, fluttered young creature.

"I reckon I've betrayed your confidence, sir," said MONTGOMERY,
desperately; "but you must have known, from hearsay at least, how I have
felt toward this young lady ever since our first meeting, and should not
have exposed me to a temptation stronger than I could bear. I have,
indeed, done myself the honor to offer her the hand and heart if one
who, although but a poor gentleman, will be richer than kings if she
deigns to make him so."

"Why, how absurd!" ejaculated the orphan, quickly. "It's perfectly
ridiculous to call me well off: and how could I make you richer than
kings and things, you know?"

The old and the young men exchanged looks of unspeakable admiration at
such touching artlessness.

"Sweet innocence!" exclaimed her guardian, playfully pinching her cheek
and privately surprised at its floury feeling. "What would you say if I
told you that, since our shrewd EDDY retired from the contest, I have
been wishing to see you and our Southern friend here brought to just
such terms as you appear to have reached? What would you say if I added
that, such consummation seeming to be the best you or your friends could
do for yourself, I have determined to deal with you as a daughter, in
the matter of seeing to it that you begin your married life with a
daughter's portion from my own estate?"

Both the young people had his hands in theirs, on either side of him, in
an instant.

"There! there!" continued the excellent old gentleman, "don't try to
express yourselves. FLORA, place one of your hands in the breast of my
coat, and draw out the parcel you find there. * * * That's it. The
article it contains once belonged to your mother, my dear, and has been
returned to me by the hands to which I once committed it in the hope
that they would present it to you. I loved your mother well, my child,
but had not enough property at the time to contend with your father.
Open the parcel in private, and be warned by its moral: Better is wilful
waist th