beg your pardon, Miss Grey; you have not breakfasted this morning, it is so early;" and he placed her a chair at the table, and handed her to it, with all due politeness.

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Caroline had been riding since sunrise; she was mortal, and the proposal was by no means unacceptable." A very considerate young man," thought she, “ upon my word; I must encourage his attempts to make himself agreeable and useful;" so as she took her seat, she commissioned him to bring her a glass of water. When he had performed that, she handed him her hat, to lay on a side-table; and when he had deposited that, she coolly, and with an air of the utmost indifference, begged him to lay her gloves in it. By the time that was done, she handed him her empty glass, for a new supply of cold

water.

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Upon my honour," thought Hugh, "this belle exacts some attention; I sus

pect

pect it is a personage of consequence in

this country."

Caroline paid no farther attention to him, and appeared to have forgotten he was present, and went to talking with all her might to Rosine and the other ladies of the company. The colonel and Hugh talked of the last foreign news, or something of that kind.

By-and-by, the colonel happened to express a wish that Hugh would become an inhabitant of the county again, after so long an absence; and insisted that he properly belonged to it, and ought to make it his permanent residence.

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Ah," replied our hero, "I am afraid, sir, I should soon desert it again for my old haunts, if I should attempt it. I find the city air suits my complexion best, about eleven months of the year."

"There you are wrong," said the colo

nel. "I assure you I have tried it. When I was a younger man, and a gayer one than I am now, I resided many years

in the city; and I thought too that I could never vegetate in the country; but when I got married, and removed to my present residence, I soon discovered that I had never known before what happiness was." Ah, you were married-that alters the case vastly. I can easily imagine that a wife would make all places pretty much alike;" and he laughed slightly as he said it.

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"Come," said the colonel, smiling, "that is an attack upon the sex which I cannot sanction: I think it is better to get even an indifferent wife, than to lead a bachelor's life in town or country."

"An indifferent wife," replied Hugh, perverting intentionally the colonel's meaning," that is exactly what I should desire in town or country-one that neither loved nor hated me-a negative in every respect. I think that must be the best chance, colonel, for matrimonial comfort,' as it is called. But then one can have so many resources in town to combat with the fiend

6

ennui, which the country does not furnish."

Caroline had listened to every word of the dialogue, although she had appeared to be engaged deeply in listening to aunt Rose's account of Rosine's conduct since Caroline paid them her last visit. She heard Hugh's wish about an "indifferent wife-a negative woman," and she bit her lips to prevent herself from saying someing saucy. She wished to herself" May Heaven send you such a one for your torment!" and looking round suddenly, saw the sneer upon his lips. If she had then spoken out her feeling, it would have come very near to this" I hate you!" but she suppressed her pique, and waited for an opportunity to pounce upon him.

The colonel still argued against our hero's prepossessions about the country."Well," said he, " as to your taste in wives, I cannot say I admire your maxim at all. I am not quite sure, in fact, that you would not find, upon experiment,

that it was better to be even hated, than entirely an object of indifference; but, however that may be, I do maintain that the country, after all, offers as many inducements to an intellectual man, as the city itself, provided he is happily married to an agreeable woman, and near agreeable society."

"I do not exactly deny that," said Hugh; "but to live in a dull country place, and have a dull wife to boot, I should like to see the mortal man that could survive it three months."

Caroline was looking full in his face as he uttered this, and with a very careless air she said "Why, I have always heard that dull women were universally preferred by the wisest and wittiest of your sex, when they look for wives; it is said they make far the best and as to dull places, I can't understand why any pleasant country situation should be dull, where one has books, if nothing else, to amuse them."

Hugh