pon us, when once he had
passed into "that undiscovered country" of matrimony? But Bill laughed
to scorn our apprehensions.

"I'll tell you what, Chris," he said, as he sprang cheerily up the
steps and unlocked the door of his future dwelling, "do you know what
I chose this house for? Because it's a social-looking house. Look
there, now," he said, as he ushered me into a pair of parlors,--"look
at those long south windows, the sun lies there nearly all day long;
see what a capital corner there is for a lounging-chair; fancy us,
Chris, with our books or our paper, spread out loose and easy, and
Sophie gliding in and out like a sunbeam. I'm getting poetical, you
see. Then, did you ever see a better, wider, airier dining-room?
What capital suppers and things we'll have there! the nicest
times,--everything free and easy, you know,--just what I've always
wanted a house for. I tell you, Chris, you and Tom Innis shall have
latch-keys just like mine, and there is a capital chamber there at the
head of the stairs, so that you can be free to come and go. And
here now's the library,--fancy this full of books and engravings from
the ceiling to the floor; here you shall come just as you please and
ask no questions,--all the same as if it were your own, you know."

"And Sophie, what will she say to all this?"

"Why, you know Sophie is a prime friend to both of you, and a capital
girl to keep things going. Oh, Sophie'll make a house of this, you may
depend!"

A day or two after, Bill dragged me stumbling over boxes and through
straw and wrappings to show me the glories of the parlor furniture,
with which he seemed pleased as a child with a new toy.

"Look here," he said; "see these chairs, garnet-colored satin, with a
pattern on each; well, the sofa's just like them, and the curtains to
match, and the carpets made for the floor with centrepieces and
borders. I never saw anything more magnificent in my life. Sophie's
governor furnishes the house, and everything is to be A No. 1, and all
that, you see. Messrs. Curtain & Collamore are coming to make the
rooms up, and her mother is busy as a bee getting us in order."

"Why, Bill," said I, "you are going to be lodged like a prince. I hope
you'll be able to keep it up; but law business comes in rather slowly
at first, old fellow."

"Well, you know it isn't the way I should furnish, if my capital was
the one to cash the bills; but then, you see, Sophie's people do it,
and let them,-