ly approved of it.

"I dare say," she said, "it may be a very happy marriage. Doctor Morton
is a sensible man, and Bella too honest a girl to marry him if she did
not mean to behave as he would like her."

And this, then, was her mother's idea of a happy marriage. Lucia
wondered still more, yet less than she would have done if she had known
how gladly Mrs. Costello would have seen her, also, safely bestowed in
the keeping of "a sensible man."

CHAPTER V.

At the time when Bella informed Lucia of her engagement, her
newly-accepted lover was having a long conversation with her
brother-in-law and guardian. There was no reason why the marriage once
arranged should be delayed; on the contrary, everybody was happily
agreed in the opinion that it might take place almost immediately. The
conference of the two gentlemen, therefore, passed readily into the
region of business, and chiefly concerned dollars and cents.

Mr. Latour, the father of Mrs. Bellairs and Bella, had died rich; all
his property in hind, houses, and money was carefully divided between
the sisters; and as he had been dead less than two years, very slight
changes had taken place during Mr. Bellairs' guardianship. Bella spoke
reasonably enough when she said her fortune would be acceptable to
Doctor Morton. He made no secret of the fact that it would be very
acceptable, and Mr. Bellairs--though, for his own part, he would have
married his charming Elise with exactly the same eagerness if she had
been penniless--was too sensible to be at all displeased with his future
brother-in-law's clear and straightforward manner of treating so
important a subject. It is true that his brains and his diploma were
almost all the capital the young man had to bring on his side, but
these, had their acknowledged value, and, after all, Bella was very
nearly of age, and it would be rather a comfort to see her safely
disposed of, instead of having to give up her guardianship into her own
giddy keeping.

Mr. Bellairs' office was a small wooden-frame building containing two
rooms. In the outer one half-a-dozen budding lawyers, in various stages,
sat at their desks; the inner one, where the two gentlemen discussed
their arrangements, was small, and contained only a stove, a
writing-table, two chairs, and some cupboards. Mr. Bellairs sat at the
table with a pile of papers before him: in the second chair--an easy
one--Doctor Morton lounged, and amused himself while he talked,