e of Mrs. Linwood, and Edith, and the friends of
my rural life. So I tried to become reconciled to the visitation, and to
do the honors of a hostess with as good a grace as possible.

Ernest took refuge in the library from her wild rattling, and then she
poured into my ear the idle gossip she had heard the evening before.

"It never will do," she cried, catching a pair of scissors from my
work-box, and twirling them on the ends of her fingers at the imminent
risk of their flying into my eyes,--"you must put a stop to this Darby
and Joan way of living,--you will be the byword of the fashionable
world,--I heard several gentlemen talking about you last night. They
said your husband was so exclusive and jealous he would not let the sun
look upon you if he could help it,--that he had the house lighted
through the roof, so that no one could peep at you through the windows.
Oh! I cannot repeat half the ridiculous things they said, but I am sure
your ears must have burned from the compliments they paid you, at least
those who have had the good-luck to catch a glimpse of your face. They
all agreed that Ernest was a frightful ogre, who ought to be put in a
boiling cauldron, for immuring you so closely,--I am going to tell him
so."

"Don't, Margaret, don't! If you have any regard for my feelings, don't,
I entreat you, ever repeat one word of this unmeaning gossip to him. He
is so peculiarly sensitive, he would shrink still more from social
intercourse. What a shame it is to talk of him in this manner. I am sure
I have as much liberty as I wish. He is ready to gratify every desire of
my heart He has made me the happiest of human beings."

"Oh! I know all that, of course. Who would not be happy in such a palace
as this?"

"It is not the splendor with which he has surrounded me," I answered,
gravely, "but the love which is my earthly Providence, which constitutes
my felicity. You may tell these _busy idlers_, who are so interested in
my domestic happiness, that I thank my husband for excluding me from
companions so inferior to himself,--so incapable of appreciating the
purity and elevation of his character."

"Well, my precious soul, don't be angry with them. You are a jewel of a
wife, and I dare say he is a diamond of a husband; but you cannot stop
peoples' tongues. They _will_ talk when folks set themselves up as
exclusives. But let me tell you one thing, my pretty creature!--I am not
going to be shut up in a cage while I am