Adam in a voice of thunder-" Are you no Major Waddell's wife ?"

66

Why, my good Sir,” began the Major, “you know it is not customary to call ladies of a certain rank wives now.'

66

Certainly not," interposed his lady; "I thought every body had known that !—Wife !what else could you have said if the Major had been a carter ?"

"What are you then, if you're no his wife ?” "Why, my lady, you know, my dear Sir, would have been the more proper and delicate thing."

"Your leddy!" cried uncle Adam, with a sardonic laugh," your leddy!"

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Certainly," said the lady, with much dignity; "there can be no doubt about that; and I can assure you, I have too much respect for Major Waddell and myself, to submit to any such low vulgar appellation."

"I've met wi' mony a daft thing in my day," said uncle Adam, "but this beats them a'; a married woman that'll no submit to be called a wife! I dinna ken what's to come next. Will you be his dearie then ?"

VOL. III.

66

Really, uncle, I must say, I have borne a great deal from you; but there are some things that nobody can put up with, and there is a duty we owe to ourselves, that I must say, I think neither the Major nor I have been very well used by you ;" and the lady's passion grew strong; the Major looked frightened.

"Do compose yourself, my dear; I am sure your good uncle had no intention of doing any thing disrespectful. Why, my dear Sir, a very little will set all to rights," offering the pen to uncle Adam; "if you will just take the trouble to write the line over again in the customary style, Major Waddell and lady, all will be well."

"I'll just as soon cut off my finger," said uncle Adam, ferociously; " and if she winna gang to my house as your wife, she shall ne'er set her foot in't in ony other capacity."

"My dear. Bell, you hear that," said the poor Major.

"Yes, Major, I do; but I have too much respect for you to give up the point; it would be lowering you, indeed, in the eyes of the world, if I were to allow myself to be put on a footing with any common man's wife in the country. It

is what I will not put up with." And with much majesty she seized the order and put it into the fire.

Uncle Adam looked at her for a moment, as if he, too, would have burst into a blaze. Then, as if disdaining even to revile her, he walked out of the apartment, banging the door after him in a manner enough to have raised the ghost of Lord Chesterfield.

"The old gentleman is very testy this morning," said the Major.

"I am surprised at your patience with him, Major; I have no idea of allowing one's self to be trampled upon in this manner-Wife! I really can't think enough of it! What else could he have said, speaking of my coachman's wife ?” "It's very true, my dear, the same thing struck me; and in a political point of view, I assure you, I think it the duty of every gentleman, who wishes well to the government of the country, to support the standing order of things, and to keep up the existing ranks of society."

"That is exactly what I think, Major; it is quite necessary there should be distinctions kept up-Wife!-every beggar has a wife!"

"Undoubtedly, my dear; beggar-wife, in fact, means neither more nor less than the wife of a beggar-man; and, in these times, when there is such a tendency to a bad spirit amongst the people, and such an evident wish to bring down the higher ranks to a level with themselves, it becomes the duty of every gentleman to guard his privileges with a jealous eye."

"I for one certainly never will give in to these liberty and equality notions, that I am determined."

"I hope not, indeed," said the Major, warmed into fervour by the spirit of his lady, "I hope not, indeed."

"How," said the lady,

66 can my servants possibly look up to me with proper respect, when I am brought upon a level with themselves ?"

"You are perfectly right, my dear, they cannot do it, it is impossible."

“Perfectly—wife, indeed !”

CHAPTER V.

Leath we are to diseas or hurt your persone ony wayis, and far leather to want you.

BANNATYNE's Journal.

THE dialogue was now at its lowest ebb, when Miss Pratt came pattering into the room full speed.

While this disturbance was going on in one room, Mrs St Clair was conversing with Mr Lyndsay in another on the subject of her daughter's pupillage, and Lady Rossville and Colonel Delmour found themselves together in the drawing-room, where they flattered themselves with enjoying an uninterrupted tête-à-tête. But within the drawing-room was a small turret, containing piles of music, porte-feuilles of drawings and engravings, heaps of worsteds and sewing-silks, and, in short, a variety of miscellaneous articles, which the Countess had not yet had leisure to