'She's to be pitied, the crature!' ''Tis mighty slender evidence to take a man's life on,' said Toole, with some disgust.

'Be the law, Sir, the whole thing gives me a complete turn.

Are you to dine with Colonel Strafford to-day ?' 'I am, Sir,' said the major; 'an' it goes again' the colonel's grain to have a party at all just now, with the respect he has for the family up there,' and he nodded his head, pensively, toward the Elms.

'But he asked Lowe ten days ago, and Mr.Dangerfield, and two or three more; and you know he could not put them off on that ground--there being no relationship, you see--and, 'pon my oath, Sir, I'd rather not go myself, just now.' That evening, at five o'clock, Colonel Stafford's dinner party assembled at the King's House.

The colonel was a serene man, and hospitality--even had he been in the dumps--demands her sacrifices.