nded to live in such a beggarly hole. I have
treated her in every respect like a genlmn, and she is as innocent now,
ma'm, as she was when she was born. If she'll marry me, I am ready;
if she'll leave you, she shall have a home where she shall be neither
bullyd nor starved: no hangry frumps of sisters, no cross mother-in-law,
only an affeckshnat husband, and all the pure pleasures of Hyming."

Mary flung herself into his arms--"Dear, dear Frederic," says she, "I'll
never leave you."

"Miss," says Mrs. Shum, "you ain't a Slamcoe nor yet a Buckmaster, thank
God. You may marry this person if your pa thinks proper, and he may
insult me--brave me--trample on my feelinx in my own house--and there's
no-o-o-obody by to defend me."

I knew what she was going to be at: on came her histarrix agen, and she
began screechin and roaring like mad. Down comes of course the eleven
gals and old Shum. There was a pretty row. "Look here, sir," says she,
"at the conduck of your precious trull of a daughter--alone with this
man, kissin and dandlin, and Lawd knows what besides."

"What, he?" cries Miss Betsy--"he in love with Mary. Oh, the wretch, the
monster, the deceiver!"--and she falls down too, screeching away as loud
as her mamma; for the silly creature fancied still that Altamont had a
fondness for her.

"SILENCE THESE WOMEN!" shouts out Altamont, thundering loud. "I love
your daughter, Mr. Shum. I will take her without a penny, and can afford
to keep her. If you don't give her to me, she'll come of her own will.
Is that enough?--may I have her?"

"We'll talk of this matter, sir," says Mr. Shum, looking as high and
mighty as an alderman. "Gals, go up stairs with your dear mamma."--And
they all trooped up again, and so the skrimmage ended.

You may be sure that old Shum was not very sorry to get a husband for
his daughter Mary, for the old creatur loved her better than all the
pack which had been brought him or born to him by Mrs. Buckmaster. But,
strange to say, when he came to talk of settlements and so forth, not
a word would my master answer. He said he made four hundred a year
reglar--he wouldn't tell how--but Mary, if she married him, must share
all that he had, and ask no questions; only this he would say, as he'd
said before, that he was a honest man.

They were married in a few days, and took a very genteel house at
Islington; but still my master went away to business, and nobody knew
where. Who could he be?

CHAP