rious, ill
natured in remark, and generally disagreeable. When Hiram Meeker first
saw Miss Arabella Thorne in her pew at St. Jude's, the interesting young
woman was (dare I mention it?) already twenty-eight. In respect to
appearance, she had altered very little since she was eighteen. So much
depended on her milliner, her dressmaker, her costumer, and her maid,
and to their credit be it spoken, they performed their duty so well,
that the 'ravages' of the fashionable seasons she had passed through
were not at all visible. There were times when Miss Arabella Thorne
would confess to herself that she ought to marry. But with every
succeeding birthday came increased suspicion that she was sought only
for her fortune.

Such was the position of affairs when the shrewd wholesale drygoods
merchant, satisfied that all his cousin cared for in matrimony was
money, conceived the idea of making a match between Hiram and the
fashionable Arabella. It did not take the former long, after Mr. Bennett
once explained just how things stood, to comprehend exactly the
situation, and to form and mature his plans accordingly. He had
committed a blunder, as Mr. Bennett termed it, in giving up Miss Tenant,
but that was a conventional mistake, if, which it is very doubtful,
Hiram ever admitted that it was a mistake. Here, however, he could bring
his keen knowledge of human nature to play, and once understanding the
character of Miss Thorne, he felt fully equal to the enterprise. In
fact, Hiram was once more on his old ground, and he enjoyed the idea of
the contest he was about to engage in.

Mr. Myrtle was fully enlisted on Hiram's side. He was much pleased with
the addition of a wealthy, rising young man--and a proselyte besides--to
his church. He feared that Miss Thorne might in time be lost to it by
her marrying outside of his congregation. Here was a capital chance to
secure _her_ and add to his own influence and popularity.

He was too astute to approach the subject directly. Miss Thorne might be
suspicious even of him. He would give her no opportunity. Mr. Myrtle was
too polished and too refined a man, too dignified indeed, to even
_appear_ in the light of a match maker. But assurance was conveyed by
Mrs. Myrtle to Mrs. Bennett, and thence _via_ Mr. Bennett confidentially
to Hiram, that Mr. Myrtle might be relied on to do everything in his
power in the delicate business.

Thus fortified, and conscious of the aid of the Bennett family, whi