n extravagant man seldom makes a good husband; he becomes embarrassed,
and his circumstances prey upon his mind, and sour his temper. A woman
who has, before marriage, been the admiration of the metropolis, is not
very likely to prove a good wife. She still sighs for the adulation
that she received, and which, from habit, has become necessary to her,
and would exact from the man for whom she has given up the world, all
the attention that she has lost by the sacrifice.

Mr and Mrs Rainscourt were joined--but they were not one. Like many
others in this world of error, their marriage might be typified by a
vial, of which one half had been filled with oil, and the other with
water, having a cork in its mouth, which confined them, and forced them
to remain in contact, although they refused to unite. The fruit of this
marriage was one daughter, now about six years old.

"Well, Mr Rainscourt, all is well, I hope; and may I not kiss my
daughter, and congratulate her upon being one of the largest heiresses
in the kingdom."

"You may, if you please, madam."

"May, if I please? Why, is it not so, Mr Rainscourt?" replied the
lady, startled at the moody brow of her husband, as he threw himself on
the sofa.

Now, Rainscourt would not have so immediately answered the question, but
he was determined that his spouse should participate in those pangs of
disappointment which swelled his own breast; as a partner of all his
joys, she was, of course, fully entitles to an equal proportion of his
cares.

"No, madam--it is not so."

"Surely you are trifling with me, Mr Rainscourt: is not the admiral
dead?"

"Yes, madam, and his grandchild is alive."

"His grandchild!" cried the lady in _alto_, pallid with vexation and
disappointment. "Well, Mr Rainscourt, this is another specimen of your
usual prudence and foresight. What man in his senses would not have
ascertained such a fact, previous to squandering away his whole
property, and leaving his daughter a beggar?"

"I think, madam, if the property has been squandered, as you term it,
that you have assisted me in so doing; at all events, the property was
my own; for I cannot exactly recollect that you increased it one
shilling when I married you."

"Certainly, not much, Mr Rainscourt, except, indeed, the amount of the
bet. I consider that as my marriage portion," replied the lady with a
sneer.

"Never made a worse bet in my life," replied the gentleman, throwing his
legs u