for some weeks afterwards. Can you
wonder then, dear Emily, that even the idea of such a thing is painful
in the extreme?"

"I'm very sorry that I proposed it," returned Emily, much concerned.
"I will tell Ada what you say, and we will get up some other amusement:
so don't think any more about it, dear;" and giving Isabel a hasty kiss,
she left her.

The sixth was a bright, cloudless day--the dazzling whiteness of the
frozen snow, and the deep blue of the sky, forming a beautiful contrast.
The weather was cold, not intensely so, and the trees looked splendid,
as their ice-covered boughs glistened and sparkled in the sunlight; and
the merry jingle of the sleigh-bells was quite enlivening. The wedding
was quite a grand affair, and passed off with great _eclat_.

Charles and Ada were to travel for three weeks, and then join the
Ashtons and Morningtons at Boston, and proceed to the old country
together.

The Ashtons left Eastwood shortly after the wedding, to prepare for a
long absence from the Park; and from the time of Lady Ashton's
departure, Isabel's visit was one of uninterrupted enjoyment. She became
so cheerful and animated, that Emily declared they positively wouldn't
know her again at Elm Grove.

Harry was to remain at W----, to read up for the examination. He had
tried very hard to prevail upon his father to let him enter Mr.
Arlington's office, as in that way he could get on much better, he said,
as he would see a great deal of law business, and he could easily read
up in the evenings.

But his father only laughed. "Love-making would play the dickens with
the studies. You would be poring over your book, without knowing that it
was upside down. No, no. After you have 'passed,' you shall travel for a
year; and then I believe that I shall be able to get you a partnership
in H---- with my old school-fellow, Harding, who is a very clever
lawyer, and stands very high in his profession."

"But will you allow me sufficient to enable me to marry and take my wife
with me?" asked Harry.

"Upon my word! that is a modest request," replied his father.

Harry laughed.

"When I was young, young men expected to make their way in the world a
little before they talked of marrying," continued Mr. Mornington; but
you ask me as coolly as possible to give you enough to enable you and
your wife to travel, before you go into business at all, which I think
is pretty brassy. I wonder what my father would have thought if I had