At

lass, and a merry. Right welcome are you, my pretty daughter, to the moated house." these words he embraced her with a loud and hearty smack, and then continued-" Body-o'me, Jocelyn! are you not an undutiful dog and a saucy, to make so much better a match than your father? Your wife is young and beautiful ; mine is neither one nor t'other; your's brings you money; mine takes it away :-but, psha! comparisons are odious. You have heard all the

good news, I find; I won't tell you any of the bad; so, instead of a word more about her ladyship, you and I will sing,

'Hang care and sorrow!

A fig for to-morrow!

Let's be happy and merry to-day.

With a chirping glass,

And a laughing lass,

How goes the rest o'nt? No wonder the laughing lass put me out, for I haven't had such an article in the house for this many a year and sad. Your wife, Jocelyn, shall supply the place. 'Gad she has a roguish eye. Who would have thought a poor foundling would ever turn out such a

"I thought you had determined not to allude to any painful subjects to-day," whispered Jocelyn.

"'Sblood! and so I had :-I quite forgot that -poor! poor thing! I won't say a word more about it. So come, my pretty lass as you have no father or mother of your own, you must lean upon the arm of a gouty old father-in-law, who will hop with you into the drawing-room, and introduce you to Lady Compton, and our friends and neighbours, for it's almost dinner-time, and our jollification shall wait for nobody."

With all the premonitions that Julia had received from her husband, not to be startled at the strange appearance of her mother-in-law, and with every disposition in the world to resist the contagious titter that was running round the drawing-room, Julia could hardly suppress her risible tendencies on being introduced to that august specimen of bedizened pinguitude. To avoid the expense of new purchasers, her Ladyship had still retained a Dutch gala-dress, which being renovated and vamped up for this joyous occasion, was enriched with her whole stock of finery, consisting of gilt buttons, bobs and tags, silver loops and tassels, sprigs of coloured foil, and equally valuable trumpery; the stomacher being at the same time emblazoned with a whole constellation of paste jewellery, flint ornaments, and flaring glass beads. Although she had rendered herself thus gorgeous in honour of the occasion, she was so far from having invested her face with any holiday costume, that it wore a

more than usual expression of peevishnes and ill-humour, the probable expense of the entertainment having rendered her completely miserable. In splenetic exclamations of Dutch, French, and English; dollars, guilders, and stivers ; pounds, shillings, and pence; she kept perpetually inveighing against the cost of one article, the inutility of a second, the wastefulness of a third, and the gormandizing propensities of the zabble without, who were eating and drinking as if they would never be satisfied.. Even the joy that she expressed at seeing Jocelyn and Julia, was flatly contradicted by her countenance, as she declared that she knew not where they were to sit, for "Saar Jan" had already invited more than the table would accommodate..

"Zooks, madam.! what signifies?" cried Sir John, pettishly" If the table won't accommodate them, they must accommodate themselves to the table. Surely you will not deny room to Jocelyn, now that he comes as the prodigal son returned."

"If he is de verlooren zoon, zo waar als ik lieve as sure as I live, you are de prodigal Vader," replied her ladyship, with a risible sound, something between a chuckle and a grunt.

"I have no objection to the character," retorted Sir John, "provided your ladyship will act the part of the fatted calf, and be killed for the comfort of the party." A loud laugh attested his own 23*

VOL. III.

sense of this coarse rejoinder; and her ladyship, whose previous ill-humour was aggravated by the triumph of her husband, was about to reply in a strain rather adapted to her original station of a fisherman's wife, than to her present elevated rank, when hostilities were luckily prevented by the announcement of dinner.

To the dinner-room they accordingly betook themselves, where the mistress of the feast actually groaned aloud at the sight of the well-covered table, valuing each dish in succession, and casting up a mental sum-total that quite completed her dismay and ill-temper. Prepared for this alarming effect upon the mind of his sordid spouse, Sir John had endeavoured to neutralize it, by placing before her a large tureen of her favourite waterzootje, which so far answered the purpose, that she instantly dedicated herself to it with great voracity, leaving her guests to shift for themselves, or make a fast instead of a feast, if they did not like to imitate the example of their hostess. In the scarcity of attendants to wait upon so numerous an assemblage, Winky Boss had been pressed into the service, and happened to enter the room, bearing a sirloin of beef, just at the moment when her ladyship was holding up her head to take breath. No sooner had she caught sight of him, than her eyes seemed starting from their sockets, she uttered a piercing scream, let fall the uplifted ladle from her hand, threw herself back in her

chair, and ejaculated, "Godt Almagtig! het is Wouter Weegschaal!"

Winky Boss seemed to be scarcely less astounded than her ladyship. His eyes, as they were rivetted upon her, winked with an alarming rapidity, his arms, losing all power, gradually sunk down to his sides, leaving the dish and the sirloin to make their own way to the floor, and he exclaimed, with a groan, "De Dood ende de Duivel! it is my wife!"

"Your what?" shouted Sir John, starting up, and hopping towards him, in springs of a yard each Your what? my good fellow, my worthy friend, my invaluable Mr. Wouter Weegschaal! will you oblige me by the repetition of that last monosyllable? What did you call her?”

The party thus addressed remained silent, betraying no further signs of emotion, than by the continued and increased workings of his eye-lids.

"'Sblood! you winking loggerhead!" cried Sir John, losing patience, "don't tantalize me in a matter of this moment. Are you Wouter Weegschaal? Is my lady your wife?”

“Ja, ja; that she is, sure enough," said Boss, with a rueful nod of the head, "at least she

was."

"Was, you scoundrel! was, you blinking blockhead!" shouted Sir John, what do you mean by was? If she was, she is; and body o'me, I believe it now you begin to look as if she were,"