f wealthy and
fashionable people, his own proved to be exceedingly valuable.

It was a sad day for the old man, as Kinch and his mother insisted that he
should give up business, which he did most reluctantly, and Kinch had to be
incessantly on the watch thereafter, to prevent him from hiring cellars,
and sequestering their old clothes to set up in business again. They were
both gone now, and Kinch was his own master, with a well-secured income of
a thousand dollars a-year, with a prospect of a large increase.

They talked matters over fully, and settled all their arrangements before
the time for parting, and then, finding the baby had scrambled into Mrs.
Ellis's lap and gone fast asleep, and that it was long after ten o'clock,
each departed, taking their several ways for home.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

The Fatal Discovery.

There is great bustle and confusion in the house of Mr. Bates.
Mantua-makers and milliners are coming in at unearthly hours, and
consultations of deep importance are being duly held with maiden aunts and
the young ladies who are to officiate as bridesmaids at the approaching
ceremony. There are daily excursions to drapers' establishments, and
jewellers, and, in fact, so much to be done and thought of, that little
Birdie is in constant confusion, and her dear little curly head is almost
turned topsy-turvy. Twenty times in each day is she called upstairs to
where the sempstresses are at work, to have something tried on or fitted.
Poor little Birdie! she declares she never can stand it: she did not dream
that to be married she would have been subjected to such a world of
trouble, or she would never have consented,--_never_!

And then Clarence, too, comes in every morning, and remains half the day,
teasing her to play, to talk, or sing. Inconsiderate Clarence! when she has
so much on her mind; and when at last he goes, and she begins to felicitate
herself that she is rid of him, back he comes again in the evening, and
repeats the same annoyance. O, naughty, tiresome, Clarence! how can you
plague little Birdie so? Perhaps you think she doesn't dislike it; you may
be right, very likely she doesn't.

She sometimes wonders why he grows paler and thinner each day, and his
nervous and sometimes distracted manner teases her dreadfully; but she
supposes all lovers act thus, and expects they cannot help it--and then
little Birdie takes a sly peep in the glass, and does not so much wonder
after all.

Yet if