s very indignant, and we parted; but I did not
think my prophecy would come true so soon. I have long since given up
speculating how marriages will turn out, for it is quite impossible to
tell. If women could be shut up in a harem, as in the East, a man who
was ashamed of his wife might go into society without her; but for a
refined and well-educated gentleman, as Edward Layton certainly is, to
be united to the _widow_ of a sugar-boiler!--yes, absolutely!--who is an
inch shorter than pretty Lelia and more tiger-headed than Lizzy Grey,
and who declares she hates music, although her dear first husband took
her _h_often to the Hopera--who adds deformity to shortness, talks
loudly of the _h_influence of wealth, and compares the presentations at
the Mansion House, that she has seen, to those at St. James's which she
has not yet seen! Verily, Edward Layton has had _his reward_!"

* * * * *

BULWER LYTTON contributes to the "Keepsake" an essay, characteristic of
his earlier rather than of his later style:

THE CONFIRMED VALETUDINARIAN.

Certainly there is truth in the French saying, that there is no ill
without something of good. What state more pitiable to the eye of a man
of robust health than that of the Confirmed Valetudinarian? Indeed,
there is no one who has a more profound pity for himself than your
Valetudinarian; and yet he enjoys two of the most essential requisites
for a happy life; he is never without an object of interest, and he is
perpetually in pursuit of hope.

Our friend Sir George Malsain is a notable case in point: young, well
born, rich, not ill educated, and with some ability, they who knew him
formerly, in what were called his "gay days," were accustomed to call
him "lucky dog," and "enviable fellow." How shallow is the judgment of
mortals! Never was a poor man so bored--nothing interested him. His
constitution seemed so formed for longevity, and his condition so free
from care, that he was likely to have a long time before him:--it is
impossible to say how long that time seemed to him. Fortunately, from
some accidental cause or other, he woke one morning and found himself
ill; and, whether it was the fault of the doctor or himself I cannot
pretend to say, but he never got well again. His ailments became
chronic; he fell into a poor way. From that time life has assumed to him
a new aspect. Always occupied with himself, he is never bored. He may be
sick, sad, sufferin