; and
Marianne and Jenny, unused to the handling of money, were incessant in
their discussions with ever patient mamma as to what was to be done
with it. I say Marianne and Jenny, for, though the case undoubtedly is
Marianne's, yet, like everything else in our domestic proceedings, it
seems to fall, somehow or other, into Jenny's hands, through the
intensity and liveliness of her domesticity of nature. Little Jenny is
so bright and wide awake, and with so many active plans and fancies
touching anything in the housekeeping world, that, though the youngest
sister and second party in this affair, a stranger, hearkening to the
daily discussions, might listen a half-hour at a time without finding
out that it was not Jenny's future establishment that was in question.
Marianne is a soft, thoughtful, quiet girl, not given to many words;
and though, when you come fairly at it, you will find that, like most
quiet girls, she has a will five times as inflexible as one who talks
more, yet in all family counsels it is Jenny and mamma that do the
discussion, and her own little well-considered "Yes" or "No" that
finally settles each case.

I must add to this family tableau the portrait of the excellent Bob
Stephens, who figured as future proprietor and householder in these
consultations. So far as the question of financial possibilities is
concerned, it is important to remark that Bob belongs to the class of
young Edmunds celebrated by the poet:--

"Wisdom and worth were all he had."

He is, in fact, an excellent-hearted and clever fellow, with a world
of agreeable talents, a good tenor in a parlor duet, a good actor at a
charade, a lively, off-hand conversationist, well up in all the
current literature of the day, and what is more, in my eyes, a
well-read lawyer, just admitted to the bar, and with as fair business
prospects as usually fall to the lot of young aspirants in that
profession.

Of course, he and my girl are duly and truly in love, in all the
proper moods and tenses; but as to this work they have in hand of
being householders, managing fuel, rent, provision, taxes, gas and
water rates, they seem to my older eyes about as sagacious as a pair
of this year's robins. Nevertheless, as the robins of each year do
somehow learn to build nests as well as their ancestors, there is
reason to hope as much for each new pair of human creatures. But it is
one of the fatalities of our ill-jointed life that houses are usually
furnis