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C. L. H.

will revolt and enter his willing protest. The imposing circum-less [recision, so desirable, yet so rare. His servants stances under which the Mecklenburg Convention was called performed their several offices like the invisible wheels into being, its duration, (two days,) the subject discussed. (In- and springs of a time piece, the results of which apdependenco,) and the applause with which the proceedings were received by a large and admiring audience, were as fitly pear to the eye, without any material interruption to calculated to rivet the attention, and make a lasting impression the other senses. His garden was laid out with matheon the memory, as any other prominent and interesting occur- matical skill, and in happy accordance with his conrence of the revolution. We now dismiss our remarks to the ceived opinions of taste. Each walk and bed had its careful investigation of an impartial public, prepared to await its rightful decision, under whose award the subject can only boundary of stiff box wood-and bachelor's hat, with properly rest in peace. southernwood or old man, were conspicuous embellishAugust 31, 1839. ments to almost every parterre. In proof, however, that Mr. Singlesides was not so illiberal as to allow his antipathy to the ladies to militate against his professed admiration for plants and flowers, a particular spot in his garden was appropriated to the culture of old maids, whose stiff stems and dusky red petals occupied a small space of earth; and lady slippers, maiden's blush, heart's ease, and even love in a puff, were likewise permitted a place. It must be confessed, however, that he appeared tacitly to consider this portion of his garden as an infected district, for he had caused an intervening row of tall shrubs to be planted, so as to intercept it as much as possible from observation, and when disposed to take a turn in his garden, always carefully avoided that particular spot.

THE BACHELOR BESET;

OR, THE RIVAL CANDIDATES.

The house of Mr. Singlesides was situated in one of the pleasantest parts of the city; it was a snug, commodious building, painted white, with a pretty varandah, green venetian blinds, and modestly overtopped by a slate-colored roof. Before the door was a prim looking row of trees, trimmed into proportions exactly corresponding with one another, and the whole fenced in by a white paling, along the top of which ran a cornice, garnished with a formidable array of sharp nails or spikes, which presented a military air of defiance. Besides these defensive appliances, the dwelling was guarded on the sides and in the rear, by a high brick wall, which showed a no less hostile aspect, being surmounted by fragments of bottles that threatened laceration to all who should attempt to reach its height. From the neatness and order of all around, one might readily conjecture this to be the abode of "single blessedness ;" and so it was-for Zachariah Singlesides was fast hastening towards his grand climacteric, and from his first verging to manhood up to the present time, love had never sweetened or embittered his draught of life; and it was a source of much self-gratulation, that amid the vicissitudes of our ever whirling sphere, woman had not influenced his destiny. A bachelor, with avowed principles of abhorrence to the matrimonial contract, which principles have been vigorously and consistently sustained through a long series of years, is not often liable to become an object of speculation to the fair sex. In the instance of Mr. Singlesides, his pertinacious resistance on first commencing life, to the advances of the ladies, had established a conviction, that nothing short of a miracle could uproot feelings and prejudices, confirmed and strengthened by ime-and, that the thaw ing of a glacier or an iceberg would be quite as feasible an undertaking as that of attempting to melt the frozen ramparts around his heart.

Returning home, sometimes worn and harrassed by every-day cares and professional labors, he never felt the want of those pleasing sympathies of conjugal affection, which numbers have so feelingly depicted. When he closed his door upon the world, it was with very opposite emotions-he had within him a sweet consciousness of quiet and security, unmingled with fearful anticipations of sour looks and squalling notes from wife and children.

On the opposite side of the street, directly facing the house in which Mr. Singlesides lived, stood the mansion of Miss Betsy Bud, an elderly gentlewoman, who had survived the expectation, at least, if not the hope, of matrimony. When the reminiscences of past days were sometimes made the tea-table chat of a group of respectable matrons, whose youth had been cotemporary with that of Miss Bud, many a racy joke relative to her love adventures was recollected and laughed over. But age seemed to have dried up every avenue to the tender passion in the heart of Miss Betsey; it was believed that the fire of her juvenile days had burnt out, and though its violence had been extreme, all now regarded her as an extinct volcano.

Although within a convenient distance for watching the movements of the bachelor, she was never detected in the unbecoming act. Her eyes, those "outlets of the soul," were discreetly confined to her own household, and if Mr. Singlesides proved his liberality by suffering lady slippers and old maids to occupy a corner If in his youth and manhood, therefore, he had been of his garden, Miss Bud with truc feminine pride, had irritated by the arts of the designing, they had long rendered bachelor hats and bachelor buttons contraband since ceased to ruffle his serenity. He revelled ad plants in her well organized flower knots. This prulibitum, in the "funny and free revelries" of a bachelor, dent line of conduct sufficiently demonstrated that she and if the din of connubial devilries smote upon his not only abstained from evil, but even from its appearears in the quiet of his orderly domicil, he would de-ance; for though it may be heroic to face and overcome voutly bless his stars that he was exempt from the evils temptation, still that prudence is commendable which which distracted his neighbors and acquaintance. guards against objects calculated to awaken desires Among other blessings enjoyed by Mr. Singlesides, known from past experience to be fruitful of discontent was that of having his household conducted in the and disappointment. Whatever, therefore, had been quietest and most methodical manner possible. His Miss Betsey's juvenile follies, the tongue of malevodomestic arrangements moved onward with that noise-lence could not now find a single fragment of indiscre

tion on which to base a tale prejudicial to her character. | saucer overspread with a milk-white napkin. Poor It is true, she was sometimes peevish and ill-natured; Jacob looked aghast, when "Miss Betsey Bud's combut who, that has the control of several unruly maid pliments, and saucer of marmalade of her own making,” servants, would not be the same? And then the equani- were presented to his master, and for a while he remainmity of her temper was frequently interrupted by the ed in a delicate dilemma, at a loss how to proceed—his midnight revelries of neighboring cats, who, entering natural politeness pleading in favor of instantly repairher premises, would scratch and scramble over hering to Mr. Singlesides with the sweets of Miss Budfavorite beds of violets and camomile, root up her catnip with unsparing effrontery, and scare her slumbers with terrific serenades.

and on the other hand, restrained by habitual respect for peculiarities to which for many years he had been subservient. Our bachelor, at the moment, was poring over one of those long presidential messages, which none but a most inveterate newspaper reader could have finished to an end, when Jacob broke gently, like "the morn on tip-toe," into the apartment, and in a subdued voice disclosed the purport of his errand. To a man who had long considered himself as free from female impertinence, as if an inhabitant of that paradise into which woman is never supposed to enter, the effect was stupifying. Speedily recovering himself, however, and shrinking from the marmalade as if it had been the gum of the deadly upas, he peremptorily ordered it to be returned, and too much discomposed to resume his employment, made a covert retreat from the house by the back door.

tious manner.

The

The respective positions which Mr. Singlesides and Miss Bud maintained in society, were not only similar as bachelor and maid, but they were, moreover, both governed by the wise principle of discharging diligently their own concerns, without breaking in upon the rights of others. Their views, however, were not extended to the promotion of universal good; for having long lived isolated from all domestic and social ties, they cared little how the machine of civil life worked, provided it did not interfere with themselves. Unfortunately though, for the peace of these two individuals, there occurred an unusual number of marriages. Many elderly young ladies, about to hang their harps upon the willow, unexpectedly found themselves converted into brides. Indeed, one wedding succeeded to another with From a minute chain of evidence, it was apparent to such startling rapidity, that all trembled, lest their turn all that Betsey Bud was getting mischievous. should come next. In the midst of this revival, one pointed rebuff her first advances had received, threw who had been an intimate of Miss Bud, but who like her into disorder, and gave a momentary check to her herself had remained single, moved off the stocks. On motions, but with the characteristic perseverance of learning this news, her ancient associate reddened, and her sex, she quickly rallied her scattered energies and unhesitatingly pronounced her a "fool;" but notwith-recommenced hostilities, though in rather a more caustanding this harsh and hasty censure, there was soon a visible change in the manners and deportment of Miss There was at the back of Mr. Singlesides' dwelling Bud. The very next Sunday, succeeding the event, a vacant lot-this, Miss Betsey rented, and presently, she was seen at church, decked out in a style of unu- from the hitherto barren enclosure, was seen to sprout sual juvenility, and her usual sanctimonious air changed a flourishing young plantation of the morus multicaulis. for one of unbecoming levity. In one so notoriously This bold manœuvre of taking the bachelor in the rear, circumspect, the gaiety of her attire and obvious in- was concealed under the prevalent silk-worm fever, attention to the ceremonies of the day attracted the though some were ill-natured enough to hint that her notice of all, and it was decided without a dissenting design was to make a cocoon of Mr. Singlesides, by voice, that the wonderful metamorphosis of Miss Bud enveloping him in meshes of her own spinning; yet could only proceed from the brisk way in which the the more benevolently disposed, considered her as only matrimonial market was looking up. The favorite acting up to the spirit of the times. It requires but meal of Mr. Singlesides was breakfast. It was a re- one ingenious projector to set afloat a novel design, for past he loved to linger over, though his table was thousands of others to imitate it, were it not for the crowned with the simplest fare-for he was as abste- wise and valuable security of a patent; but, unfortumious as a camel-but with a newspaper, his slippers nately, there was no legal authority to secure to Miss slip-shod, and leisurely nibbling a crust of dry toast, Betsey an exclusive right to the conquest she meditated. Occasionally softened by an appeal to his cup of coffee, Like the intrepid and enterprising discoverer of our his moments flew by on angelic wings. To have inter-continent, she was doomed to see others press into the rupted him at such moments, would have occasioned new world, which she had vainly hoped would be left serious annoyance; therefore, his well disciplined at- for her alone to possess. tendant, after quietly placing his meal before him, would instantly withdraw, leaving him to the luxury of feeling "never less alone, than when alone." Now, it happened, while Mr. Singlesides was enjoy-learned, to her unspeakable dismay, that a young, handing his solitary repast, the day after Miss Bud's profanation of her venerable person by youthful gewgaws, and of the Sabbath by indecorous demeanor, that the door of the bachelor's hall was assaulted by a repetition of raps, which quickened the steps of Mr. Singlesides' sedate waiting-man, who was curious to know who demanded admittance at this unseasonable hour. Upon opening the door, a demure looking damsel manifested herself, holding a neat waiter, on which was a covered

It was not long before the bustle of cleansing, white washing, and the removing of furniture, in a fine brick tenement just next door, attracted her notice, and she

some, and sprightly widow, was to become its tenant. That woman who has been able to secure a first husband, is always suspected of understanding the art of entrapping a second. Pangs of jealousy, and dread of rivalship, began to assail the bosom of the spinster, who resolved to keep an eye on the movements of her new neighbor, in order to ascertain whether there was any solid grounds for apprehension. Alas! for poor Miss Betsey Bud, she never cast a glance in the direc

tion of the brick tenement, but she saw either the bust | any delicacy arrived, Jacob would secretly receive it, of Mrs. Gossamer, prominent from a window, or a full and return a polite message of thanks in the name of length figure of the same individual, placed in a pictu- Mr. Singlesides. From certain expressions that had resque attitude on the portico. The widow had a bril-reached her ears, Miss Betsey concluded that she was liant voice throughout the evening the street was much indebted to her confidant for the gracious manfilled with music, as ever and anon she broke out with ner with which she was led to believe her presents a fragment of a popular ditty, or brought to light the were received, and in consequence looked upon sucmemory of some sweet bard, whose numbers deserving cess as more than probable. Coinciding in the opiimmortality, have been swept away among the rubbish nion, that "the surest way to a man's heart, is down of past ages. Though not apt to combine causes with his throat," she continued to attest her tender regard effects, Miss Bud shook in her shoes at the possible and her housekeeping abilities, by blackberry cordial, emotions that might be created by the melody of this en- squeezed by the magic hand of love, custards, and nuts, chantress. In her youth she had read Alexander's feast, picked in unbroken halves from the shell, to give zest to and in terror she recalled the different passions inspiring a glass of madeira-with a catalogue of other dainties, the conqueror by the apposite measures which burst like the smaller articles in the stock of a dry-goods or breathed from the lyre of Timotheus. She, herself, merchant-too tedious to enumerate. Nor was this the had once enjoyed the reputation of a sweet singer. In only way in which her talents and ingenuity were exan association called the Seraphic Society, whose object. ercised. She had contrived to ascertain, that a mat was was the cultivation of sacred music, she had even ac- wanting for the argean lamp, which stood upon the quired the soubriquet of Seraphina. But since her centre table in the bachelor's parlor. Immediately the time, music, like almost every thing else, had changed requisite materials for working in worsted, were proits style and character; and when striving to imitate cured, and seated in a becoming attitude at a front winthe light grace, with which the widow run or rather dow, Miss Bud commenced a bird of paradise. Day flitted up an octave, Miss Betsey's efforts resembled and night she toiled, first at the head-then at the tailthe gobbling of a turkey, or the more discordant notes till at length, starting from the canvass, appeared the of a donkey. With the occupation of watching her gorgeous inhabitant of the torrid zone, arrayed in even rival, setting snares for the bachelor, and attending to greater splendor than when seen on fluttering pinions, her other numerous engagements, the duties of a diplo- beneath its own fervid suns. This working in crewel, matist were not more fatiguing and complicated. But was literally cruel work both to the person by whom it Mrs. Gossamer was the sorest evil with which she had was executed, and for whom it was designed. When to contend; her mind dwelt incessantly on the subject, it was handed in to Mr. Singlesides, carefully wrapped until the lovely widow became the incubus of her sleep-in the folds of a perfumed pocket handkerchief, he aning and waking visions. Penetrating the careless in-grily bade the handmaid to be more particular in future, trepidity of her disposition, Miss Betsey concluded it best to redouble her efforts to gain access to the good graces of Mr. Singlesides, before weapons from that quarter could affect him. In consequence, she busied herself more than ever with her morus plantation, and even went to the expense of having a neat little cocoonery erected in the centre of the lot, where she was sure to be found at those hours when Mr. Singlesides was at home, ostensibly engaged in superintending the progress of the building. The lot was not only in the rear of the bachelor, as has already been remarked, but also adjoining his garden, so that often when he was inhaling the evening breath of his flowers, the bony arm of the spinster thrust through the paling, to gather a sprig of verbina, or her long neck stretched over the shrubbery like a camelopard's, would startle and drive him away. Never was a bachelor so beset! If he took a retrospective glance, there was the spectral form of Betsey Bud, standing in grim relief, like the apparition of a disturbed conscience, while a forward view showed the attractive widow, with siren smiles, luring him to his destruction.

and not pester him by mistaking one house for another. When the girl returned with this evidently wilful misunderstanding on the part of Mr. Singlesides, Mies Bud retired to her chamber to weep, and to calculate the cost of her mat, which, having regarded frantically for a few seconds, she consigned to the depths of a large trunk, to rest among other woollen articles which her precaution had buried in tobacco, to prevent the incursion of the moths.

It is not uncommon in a concern where matrimony is the subject, that what was at first entered upon merely as a matter of speculation, ends in becoming an affair of the heart. At the commencement of her undertaking, from simply having in view a change of name, Miss Bud now imagined herself deeply and irrevocably in love. Alas! she was indeed a bud with a canker concealed within it.

Mrs. Gossamer, the charming widow, was precisely one of those kind of women, who are adored by the gentlemen, and detested by the opposite sex. There was just sufficient freedom in her manners to lead her innocently, and without a suspicion of being at all liable to censure, into those trivial breaches of prudence which the censorious delight to seize upon and magnify into glaring improprieties.

There was one stroke of Betsey's policy, which seemed to promise greater success than any she had tried; this was, having gained Jacob, as she believed, over to her interest. But this was not exactly the case. From the number of beaux who daily worshipped at Though no ways anti-matrimonial, this faithful servi- her shrine, Miss Betsey's apprehensions of her as a ritor was not particularly desirous of serving under a val were somewhat allayed, until a circumstance transgynarchy, while on the other hand he was not destitute pired to put in agitation all her former fears and suspiof feelings of gratitude for services rendered him by cions. Miss Bud was one evening, as usual, stalking Miss Bud, which he endeavored to maintain consistent- among her morus, feigning to be busy in gathering ly with his fidelity to his master. When, therefore, leaves for her voracious pets, the silk worms, when who

certs, not for their harmony, but for the discord they were likely to produce.

should enter Mr. Singlesides' garden, but Mrs. Gossa- was difficult at such moments to determine, whether mer! There she was, advancing gaily along the mid- her voice, her harp, or her smile was most bewitching. dle walk, without gloves, bonnet or shawl; her hair Betsy Bud enjoyed the thought of what a happy confloating over her face and neck in bewitching negligence. trast her humane behavior would present, when view. The apparition of one from the nether regions, coulded with the levity of her rival, and enjoyed these connot have more astonished Miss Betsey, the sensitive Miss Betsey Bud, who quivering and shivering, remain ed gazing at her with distended eyeballs. This bold It was a bright beautiful night in July, when all within step of the widow was indeed taking the bull by the the vicinity of the pretty widow's residence were awahorns. She ran about, smelling first one flower and kened by a group of serenaders, who were striving with then another, when Mr. Singlesides appeared at a win- all their skill to impart to the fair object of their gal dow. "Your garden is charming," cried she, to him, lantry some idea of the music of the spheres. The in a voice whose cadence lingered delightfully on the weather was intensely warm, the upper windows of ear. "You must excuse my trespass-the temptation every house in the neighborhood were opened to catch is so great" and her concluding words were accompa- any breeze that might stir--and carefully screened withnied with a "wreathed smile,” as she continued wait-in a lace net, from those nocturnal disturbers of repose, ing in expectation of an answer. Whether it was the the moschetos, lay Mr. Singlesides. It had been a powerful spell of beauty, or that the bachelor had not restless night with him until the last half hour, when quite forgot himself to stone, yet irritated and perplex-sleep had kindly visited his pillow; but he was recalled ed as he was, he certainly made an effort to be gracious. He muttered some words not exactly intelligible, and waved his hand with an action somewhat resembling the motions of a dead body under the effects of a galvanic battery, yet which might admit of the interpretation of a welcome.

Betsey Bud felt as though she could have challenged her to single combat. She surveyed her with the emphatic glare of a dragoness, and would assuredly have spoken, if, at the instant, Mr. Singlesides had not retreated from the window, and Mrs. Gossamer from the garden.

to the miseries of life, by the noise of the musicians. The hour which brought them there, was not only an evil one to the bachelor, but also to his guardian angel, Jacob, who, worn with the fatigues of attending his patient, was most unfaithfully slumbering on his post. Ever since his master had lain quiet, Jacob's head had commenced a bobbing motion, similar to that of a belligerently disposed goat; but his master's voice roused him-and he arose, scratching his head and staggering to the window. "Close in those shutters," cried Mr. Singlesides, loud enough to be heard on the other side of the street. "Gracious goodness," responded Miss Bud, frisking from her couch, "they have waked him up."

From this time forward, the sole aim of Mrs. Gossamer seemed to be the captivation of the bachelor. Per- Miss Betsey's love had arrived at such a pitch, that ceiving his partiality for flowers, she never came into she never could, when speaking of Mr. Singlesides, the possession of a rare plant, without sending him a pronounce his name. She generally ran through the cutting; and whenever he was the least indisposed, her whole declension of the pronoun He. "Shameful," inquiries never ceased until the object of them was re- she continued, elevating her voice so as to be overstored to health. heard-"such downright barbarity !" "he has not had These soothing attentions, in seasons of indisposition, a wink of sleep"-"it will ruin his health"-"it will be Miss Bud had been most unaccountably deficient in, for | the death of him.” Although the dog star was raging, which, on reflection, she sincerely reprehended herself, | Miss Bud modestly enveloped herself in a large cloak, determining hereafter to repair her fault; and it was not and advanced towards a window, whence she could inlong before an occasion offered for her doing so. The distinctly discover the figure of Mrs. Gossamer, hid bebachelor was seized with an acute attack of rheuma- hind a curtain, peeping down upon the serenaders. tism. Miss Betsey early apprised of it, immediately"This ought not to be encouraged," she said, firing at dispatched a long message of regret and condolence, the sight of the widow-" the civil authority should accompanied by the skirt of an old red flannel petticoat, interfere"-" our police regulations are scandalously on which was pinned a certificate, penned by herself, lax"-" and such a valuable life as his is." Here Mrs. highly recommendatory of its virtues from her own Gossamer gave a faint titter, which was echoed in a personal experience. Whether these virtues were ever corresponding key by one of the party below. "Genput to the test in the instance of the invalid, is uncer- tlemen," called Miss Bud, "there is an unfortunate intain; for although Jacob in his anxiety to relieve his mas-dividual in this neighborhood, who is extremely illter, tried each recipe that poured in from the widow and maid, yet he might prudently have rejected this, from a fear that Miss Bud meant to intimate by this sanguinary banner, that she intended to give no quarter. During this distressing spell, she was never for one moment off her guard; her voice varied only from piano to pianissimo, and she stepped about as noiselessly as time. Now the widow was not so circumspect, but, as usual, had had her bevy of beaux paying their evening homage. Though not absolutely vain of her vocal powers, Mrs. Gossamer never enjoyed herself more, than when making melody either with a select knot of amateurs, or warbling to one entranced listener; and it

will you please to move further off with your music." A brisk chorus from the serenaders was the only reply; and in an agony of imaginary distress, Miss Bud paced from window to window, wringing her hands, and tearing the border of her night cap. "Mrs. Gossamer," she again began, "though I have not the honor of your acquaintance”—these words were delivered in a tone of mock emphasis-"I take the liberty of speaking, to request you will endeavor to silence this uproar." "Madam," answered an impertinent young fellow of the group, "we shall play and sing as long as we feel inclined," and he immediately struck up in a comic voice, "Nobody coming to marry me, nobody coming to woo."

Slam went the window shutters, crash, down upon the sill came the sash, and flap into bed went Miss Bud, vowing eternal enmity to Mrs. Gossamer and every other widow extant.

with true African urbanity. Besides wishing to know Mr. Singlesides' motive for renting his house, Miss Bud was actuated by another powerful principle of curiosity. She wished to inspect every thing about the bachelor's Mr. Singlesides now arose and seated himself, with a establishment; so after putting a few leading questions groan, in the silver rays of the magnificent orb which to Jacob, while she peered into every nook and cranny, streamed full into his apartment. It was just such a she made a feint of retiring; but no sooner had Jacob moon as a lover or poet might have apostrophised,—by | withdrawn, than slipping off her shoes to prevent being turns brightly beaming, or partially overshadowed by overheard, she stole stealthily up stairs, thinking to have drifting fragments of dark clouds. But Mr. Singlesides a peep into the bachelor's bed-room, although her maidhad no pretensions to either character; he was a thing enly delicacy strongly argued against the step. But, entirely apart from the romance acting beneath the lat-"when a woman deliberates, she is lost," and in went tice of the young and gay, and he could only continue to groan and protest against "the intolerable racket." "Upon my honor," whimpered Miss Bud in a sympathetic tone, "this is too bad"-and up again she sprung and rolled herself in the cloak and unclosed the window-"Gentlemen," she called in a voice of mild expostulation—“there is in this imme'iate neighborhood a valuable life at stake"-but a voice in which the very soul of the singer seemed embodied, as he stood with uplifted face towards the window of Mrs. Gossamer, drowned her quivering accents; and before Miss Bud could summon resolution to speak again, the serenading party withdrew, as the closing line of the song, "Yes, till death I'm thine," died upon the air.

Miss Bud in breathless trepidation. She was charmed with every thing she saw-such exquisite order, combined with such solid comfort!—such a display of just taste in the pattern of the bed and window curtains! "not gaudy but neat." While in this state of delicious excitement, she fancied she heard advancing steps and voices. Poor Betsey Bud flew about the room like a pent up rooster, and quite as red. Once she felt inclined to take a desperate leap from the window, but her courage forsook her, and again she scampered and fluttered about in agony. By some accidental circumstance, Mr. Singlesides had returned to his house very soon after having left it, and the first object that presented itself on entering, was Mrs. Gossamer, seated near the centre table, negligently turning over the leaves of a book she had taken from it. With a slight excuse for her freedom, she named her desire to look at the house, which she proposed renting, as it appeared far preferable to her own. The "beset bachelor" inter

It was not long ere Mr. Singlesides was able to resume his ordinary occupations; but the serene delight with which he used to return home from the fatigues of his counting-house, was completely destroyed. His means of ingress and egress were so entirely under the surveillance of his indefatigable persecutors, that he se-nally groaned, as he perceived how fairly he had renriously meditated the plan of having a communication dered himself liable to female impertinence and intrucut through the side of the house, leading into the alley, sion; but hoping that his misery, which now seemed to and which at last he triumphantly saw executed. But have reached its climax, would soon have an end, he here the superiority of woman's wit over man's inge- exerted himself to make a show of civility, while he nuity, was manifested--for Miss Bud, by enlarging the conducted the widow through the rooms on the first borders of her mulberry domain, rendered this avenue story. To preclude any further examination, he reof escape even more exposed to her vigilance than the marked that the upper part was precisely on the same two others. The poor “beset” one, knew not what to plan; but this would not satisfy Mrs. Gossamer, who do: he was attached to his house, its location, and every declared that she never engaged a house without first thing about it, but to live in such incessant thraldom | having made herself intimate with the geography of it. was out of the question, and in a fit of spleen and des- "So come, Mr. Singlesides," she cried, gaily—“lead pair, he put an advertisement in the "Morning Her- the way." "You will excuse me, madam," said the ald," offering it for rent. Miss Bud was congratulating bachelor. "Indeed I will not," said the undaunted herself on the manner in which she was gradually draw- widow, running towards the staircase, followed by Mr. ing a line of circumvallation round her prey, when the Singlesides. "Into every room except this," he said, notice of Mr. Singlesides' projected removal caught her placing a resolute hand on the lock of his chamber door. eye, and perplexed to know what had caused so sudden" Nay, but I must, sir." 'Impossible, madam." "I and unlooked for an event, she determined to find it out. am determined upon it." "Ma'am, I swear-." "Come, Mr. Singlesides was usually so very methodical in his do not swear, for I am resolved to have a peep into this movements, that in his hours of going from and return- Blue Beard chamber of your's." "You cannot enter ing to his home, there rarely occurred the deviation of ma'am; if you choose to overstep the bounds of propria minute, and Betsy, as soon as she saw him leave the ety, I do not." "Nonsense, Mr. Singlesides, your opdoor and turn the corner of the street, screened her head position only inflames my curiosity." in a large dove-colored caleche, threw over her lean shoulders a strip of black lace, and tripping over the way, was soon heard knocking at the highly burnished rapper of the bachelor. Jacob heard and obeyed the summons, but was somewhat reluctant to admit the lady, who came under pretence of examining the house before engaging it for a friend. Recollecting, however, that as his master never returned until half an hour before the hour for dining, there could be no great harm in complying with her request, he at last ushered her in

At this critical juncture, Miss Bud, nearly driven out of her wits, was just in the act of hiding under the bed. She was entirely concealed except one long leg which protruded from beneath the valance, when the door flew open, and in came Mrs. Gossamer. "Gracious Heaven !" exclaimed she, starting back with well feigned surprise-" what do I behold! Really, Mr. Singlesides, had I known-could I possibly have anticipated this— pardon me, sir—but I must say, it is the last sight I should have expected to see. O! for shame, Mr. Sin

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