Half the sum due to _my_ father has thus passed into my hands as his next of kin; and the other half is to follow in course of time.

If my hopes had been fulfilled, how gladly I should have shared my prosperity with you! As it is, I have far more than enough for my wants as a lonely man, and plenty left to spend in your service.
"God bless and prosper you, my dear.

I shall ask you to accept a little present from me, among the other offerings that are made to you before the wedding day .-- R.M." The studiously considerate and delicate tone in which these lines were written had an effect on Isabel which was exactly the opposite of the effect intended by the writer.

She burst into a passionate fit of tears; and in the safe solitude of her own room, the despairing words escaped her, "I wish I had died before I met with Alfred Hardyman!" As the days wore on, disappointments and difficulties seemed by a kind of fatality to beset the contemplated announcement of the marriage.
Miss Pink's asthma, developed by the unfavorable weather, set the doctor's art at defiance, and threatened to keep that unfortunate lady a prisoner in her room on the day of the party.

Hardyman's invitations were in some cases refused; and in others accepted by husbands with excuses for the absence of their wives.