the
bride became very intimate and confidential over a glass of hot
brandy-and-water.

"I don't do this kind of thing, only when I've got a friend," said
Brisket, tapping the tumbler with his spoon. "But I really am glad to
see you. I've took a fancy to you now, ever since you went so nigh
throttling me. By Jove! though, I began to think it was all up with
me,--only for Sarah Jane."

"But he didn't!" said Emily, looking first at her great husband and
then at Robinson's slender proportions.

"Didn't he though? But he just did. And what do you think, Em'ly? He
wanted me once to sit with him on a barrel of gunpowder."

"A barrel of gunpowder!"

"And smoke our pipes there,--quite comfortable. And then he wanted me
to go and fling ourselves into the river. That was uncommon civil,
wasn't it? And then he well nigh choked me."

"It was all about that young woman," said Emily, with a toss of her
head. "And from all I can hear tell, she wasn't worth fighting for.
As for you, Bill, I wonder at you; so I do."

"I thought I saw my way," said Brisket.

"It's well for you that you've got somebody near you that will see
better now. And as for you, Mr. Robinson; I hope you won't be long in
the dumps, neither." Whereupon he explained to her that he was by no
means in the dumps. He had failed in trade, no doubt, but he was now
engaged upon a literary work, as to which considerable expectation
had been raised, and he fully hoped to provide for his humble wants
in this way till he should be able to settle himself again to some
new commercial enterprise.

"It isn't that as she means," said Brisket. "She means about taking a
wife. That's all the women ever thinks of."

"What I was saying is, that as you and Bill were both after her,
and as you are both broke with her, and seeing that Bill's provided
himself like--"

"And a charming provision he has made," said Robinson.

"I did see my way," said Brisket, with much self-content.

"So you ought to look elsewhere as well as he," continued Emily.
"According to all accounts, you've neither of you lost so very much
in not getting Maryanne Brown."

"Maryanne Brown is a handsome young woman," said Robinson.

"Why, she's as red as red," said Mrs. Brisket; "quite carroty, they
tell me. And as for handsome, Mr. Robinson;--handsome is as handsome
does; that's what I say. If I had two sweethearts going about talking
of gunpowder, and throwing themselves into rivers along of me,
I'd-