have a family?"

"It is all in the hands of Providence," said the parson's wife.

"Yes; that is true. He is not too old yet to be a second Priam, and have
his curtains drawn the other way. That's his little game, is it?"

"There's a sort of rumor about, that it is possible."

"And who is the lady?"

"You may be sure there will be no lack of a lady if he sets his mind
upon it. I was turning it over in my mind, and I thought of Matilda
Thoroughbung."

"Joshua's aunt!"

"Well; she is Joshua's aunt, no doubt. I did just whisper the idea to
Joshua, and he says that she is fool enough for anything. She has
twenty-five thousand pounds of her own, but she lives all by herself."

"I know where she lives,--just out of Buntingford, as you go to Royston.
But she's not alone. Is Uncle Prosper to marry Miss Tickle also?" Miss
Tickle was an estimable lady living as companion to Miss Thoroughbung.

"I don't know how they may manage; but it has to be thought of, Harry.
We only know that your uncle has been twice to Buntingford."

"The lady is fifty, at any rate."

"The lady is barely forty. She gives out that she is thirty-six. And he
could settle a jointure on her which would leave the property not worth
having."

"What can I do?"

"Yes, indeed, my dear; what can you do?"

"Why is he going to upset all the arrangements of my life, and his life,
after such a fashion as this?"

"That's just what your father says."

"I suppose he can do it. The law will allow him. But the injustice would
be monstrous. I did not ask him to take me by the hand when I was a boy
and lead me into this special walk of life. It has been his own doing.
How will he look me in the face and tell me that he is going to marry a
wife? I shall look him in the face and tell him of my wife."

"But is that settled?"

"Yes, mother; it is settled. Wish me joy for having won the finest lady
that ever walked the earth." His mother blessed him,--but said nothing
about the finest lady,--who at that moment she believed to be the future
bride of Mr. Joshua Thoroughbung. "And when I shall tell my uncle that
it is so, what will he say to me? Will he have the face then to tell me
that I am to be cut out of Buston? I doubt whether he will have the
courage."

"He has thought of that, Harry."

"How thought of it, mother?"

"He has given orders that he is not to see you."

"Not to see me!"

"So he declares. He has written a long letter to your father, in wh