a brass farthing among them."

"Why did he marry her?"

"Who knows? He liked her, I believe," said he, after a pause, as though,
failing a good and valid reason, he gave the next best that offered.

"'Georgina, too, said she 'd write, but the chances are her own
commissions would have been the burden of her letter. She has never
forgotten that bargain of Mechlin lace you once procured her, and always
speculates on some future exercise of your skill.'"

Annesley burst into a hearty laugh, and said,--

"It was amongst the trumpery they gave me at Antwerp for a bill of three
hundred and fifty pounds; I got a Rubens,--a real Rubens, of course,--an
ebony cabinet, and twenty yards of coffee-colored 'point de Bruxelles,'
horrid trash; but no matter, I never paid the bill, and Georgina thought
the lace a dead bargain at forty louis."

"So that it squared you both?" said Grog.

"Just so, Master Davis. Read on."

"'You must see the utter impossibility of my making any increase to your
present allowance--'"

"Hang me if I do, then!"

"'--present allowance. The pressure of so many bad years, the charges of
aiding the people to emigrate, and the cost of this confounded war, have
borne very heavily upon us all, and condemned us to economies that we
never dreamed of. For myself, I have withdrawn my subscription from
several charities, and will neither give a cup at the Broome Regatta,
nor my accustomed ten pounds towards the race ball. I wish I could
impress you with the necessity of similar sacrifices: these are times
when every man must take his share of the national burdens, and reduce
his habits of indulgence in conformity with national exigency.'"

"It 's all very fine to talk of cutting your coat, but when you have n't
got any cloth at all, Master Davis--"

"Well, I suppose you must take a little of your neighbor's--if it don't
suit you to go naked. This here noble Lord writes 'like a book;' but
when he says, 'I 'm not a-goin' to stump it,' there 's no more to be
said. You don't want to see the horse take his gallops that you know
is to be scratched on the day of the race,--that's a mere piece of idle
curiosity, ain't it?"

"Quite true, Grog."

"Well, it's clear he won't He says he won't, and that's enough.--'We
have come abroad for no other reason than economy, and are only looking
for a place inexpensive enough for our reduced means.' What's his
income?"

"Better than twelve thousand a year."

"Has he deb