e was fonder of dress than either Nancy or Biddy,
and revelled in the notion of astonishing "the old niggard," as she
called him; and this she did "many a time and oft." In vain did
Flanagan try to keep her extravagance within bounds. She would either
wheedle, reason, bully, or shame him into doing what she said "was
right and proper for a snug man like him." His house was soon well
furnished: she made him get her a jaunting car. She sometimes _would_
go to parties, and no one was better dressed than the woman he chose
for her rags. He got enraged now and then, but Kitty pacified him by
soft words and daring inventions of her fertile fancy. Once, when he
caught her in the fact of wearing a costly crimson silk gown, and
stormed, she soothed him by telling him it was her old black one she
had dyed; and this bouncer, to the great amusement of her female
friends, he loved to repeat, as a proof of what a careful contriving
creature he had in Kitty. She was naturally quick-witted. She managed
him admirably, deceived him into being more comfortable than ever he
had been before, and had the laudable ambition of endeavouring to
improve both his and her own condition in every way. She set about
educating herself, too, as far as her notions of education went; and,
in a few years after her marriage, by judiciously using the means which
her husband's wealth afforded her of advancing her position in society,
no one could have recognised in the lively and well-dressed Mrs.
Flanagan the gawky daughter of a middling farmer. She was very
good-natured, too, towards her sisters, whose condition she took care
to improve with her own; and a very fair match for the eldest was made
through her means. The younger one was often staying in her house,
dividing her time nearly between the town and her father's farm, and no
party which Mrs. Flanagan gave or appeared at went off without giving
Biddy a chance to "settle herself in the world." This was not done
without a battle now and then with old Flanagan, whose stinginess would
exhibit itself upon occasion; but at last all let and hindrance to the
merry lady ceased, by the sudden death of her old husband, who left her
the entire of his property, so that, for the first time, his _will_ was
her pleasure.

After the funeral of the old man, the "disconsolate widow" was
withdrawn from her own house by her brother and sister to the farm,
which grew to be a much more comfortable place than when Kitty left