n Riccabocca's agreeable and companionable qualities;
and concluded with a skilful peroration upon the excellent occasion the
wedding would afford to reconcile Hall and parish, by making a voluntary
holocaust of the stocks.

As he concluded, the squire's brow, before thoughtful, though not
sullen, cleared up benignly. To say truth, the squire was dying to get
rid of the stocks, if he could but do so handsomely and with dignity;
and had all the stars in the astrological horoscope conjoined together
to give Miss Jemima "assurance of a husband," they could not so have
served her with the squire as that conjunction between the altar and the
stocks which the parson had effected!

Accordingly, when Mr. Dale had come to an end, the squire replied, with
great placidity and good sense, "That Mr. Rickeybockey had behaved very
much like a gentleman, and that he was very much obliged to him; that he
[the squire] had no right to interfere in the matter, further than with
his advice; that Jemima was old enough to choose for herself, and that,
as the parson had implied, after all she might go farther and fare
worse,--indeed, the farther she went (that is, the longer she waited)
the worse she was likely to fare. I own, for my part," continued the
squire, "that though I like Rickeybockey very much, I never suspected
that Jemima was caught with his long face; but there's no accounting for
tastes. My Harry, indeed, was more shrewd, and gave me many a hint, for
which I only laughed at her. Still I ought to have thought it looked
queer when Mounseer took to disguising himself by leaving off his
glasses, ha, ha! I wonder what Harry will say; let's go and talk to
her."

The parson, rejoiced at this easy way of taking the matter, hooked his
arm into the squire's, and they walked amicably towards the Hall. But
on coming first into the gardens they found Mrs. Hazeldean herself,
clipping dead leaves or fading flowers from her rose-trees. The squire
stole slyly behind her, and startled her in her turn by putting his arm
round her waist, and saluting her smooth cheek with one of his hearty
kisses; which, by the way, from some association of ideas, was a
conjugal freedom that he usually indulged whenever a wedding was going
on in the village.

"Fie, William!" said Mrs. Hazeldean, coyly, and blushing as she saw the
parson. "Well, who's going to be married now?"

"Lord! was there ever such a woman?--she's guessed it!" cried the
squire, in great