is the fair lady?"

"Can you not guess?"

"Jane Emory?"

"Of course. She is the most sensible women it has yet been my
fortune to meet."

"Has the best common sense, I suppose?"

"Exactly."

"You are a genius, Walter. When you die, I expect you will leave a
clause in your will, to the effect that the undertaker shall be a
man of good, plain, common sense. O dear! What a dull life you will
lead! Darby and Joan!"

"You are still a trifler with serious matters, Charles. But time
will sober you, I trust, and do it before such a change will come
too late."

"How much is old Emory worth, Walter?" Wilton asked, without
regarding the last remark of his friend.

"I am sure I do not know. Not a great deal, I suppose."

"You don't know?"

"No; how should I?"

"Well, you are a queer one! It is time that you did then, let me
tell you."

"Why so?"

"In the name of sense, Walter, what are you going to marry his
daughter for."

"Because I love her."

"Pah! I know how much of that sort of thing appertains to the
business."

"Charles!"

"Don't look so utterly dumfounded, friend Walter."

"I am surprised, and I must say pained, to hear you speak thus.
Surely you love the young lady you propose to marry?"

"Of course. But then I have a decent regard for her old father's
wealth; and I am by no means insensible to her personal attractions.
I group all that is desirable into one grand consideration--beauty,
wealth, standing, mental endowments, etc.,--and take her for the
whole. But for love--a mere impulse that will die of itself, if left
alone,--to marry a young lady! O no,--I am not the simpleton for
that!"

Walter Gray looked his friend in the face for a moment or two, but
did not reply. He was pained, even shocked at his levity.

"You seem really to doubt my being in earnest?" said Wilton, after a
pause.

"I would doubt, if I could, Charles. But I fear you are speaking out
too truly, sentiments that I could not have believed you capable of
entertaining."

"You are too simple and unsophisticated to live in this world, my
old friend Walter Gray."

"And long may I remain so," was the calm response, "if to be honest
and sincere is to be simple and unsophisticated."

"Well, good morning to you, and success to your love marriage."

And so saying, Charles Wilton left the office of his friend.

A few weeks more passed away, and the two young men had, in the
meantime, consummated their matrimonial engage