t decide--after so many grave
errors, she was afraid to trust herself. The matter was then
referred--of all men in the world--to the commodore, who graciously
replied, that they might go to the demon for him. But as Cloudy and Lina
had no especial business with his Satanic Majesty they declined to avail
themselves of the permission, and consulted Mrs. Waugh, whose deep,
mellow laugh preceded her answer, when she said:

"Take heart, Lapwing! take heart, and all the happiness you can possibly
get! I have lived a long time, and seen a great many people, good and
bad, and though I have sometimes met people who were not so happy as
they merited--yet I never have seen any one happier than they deserved
to be! and that they cannot be so, seems to be a law of nature that
ought to reconcile us very much to the apparent flourishing of the
wicked."

But Mrs. L'Oiseau warned her daughter not to trust to "Aunty," who
was so good-natured, and although such a misguided woman, that if she
had her will she would do away with all punishment--yes, even with
Satan and purgatory! But Jacquelina had much less confidence in Mrs.
L'Oiseau than in Mrs. Waugh; and so she told Cloudy, who thought that
he had waited already quite long enough, to wait until Marian and
Thurston came home, and if they thought it would be right for her to be
happy--why--then--maybe--she might be! But the matter must be referred
to them.

And now it was referred to them, by the sorely tried Cloudy. And they
gave Jacquelina leave to be "happy." And she was happy! And as for
Cloudy, poor, constant fellow! he was so overjoyed that he declared he
would petition the Legislature to change his name as no longer
appropriate, for though his morning had been cloudy enough, his day was
going to be a very bright one!

When Mrs. L'Oiseau heard of this engagement, she crossed herself, and
told her beads, and vowed that the world was growing so wicked that she
could no longer live in it. And she commenced preparations to retire to
a convent, to which in fact she soon after went, and where in strict
truth, she was likely to be much happier than her nature would permit
her to be elsewhere.

Cloudy and Lina were very quietly married, and took up their abode at
the pleasant farmhouse of Locust Hill, which was repaired and
refurnished for their reception. But if the leopard cannot change his
spots, nor the Ethiope his skin--neither can the fairy permanently
change her nature; for n