THEIR FAMILY TROUBLES. 27

difficult to please, till at length a gay young stranger,
whom she accidentally met, with, fixed her fancy.
Her friends objected somewhat to the match. In
the first place, he was a stranger; in the second
place, he lived far off, that is to say, in Liverpool ;
and to them, who wished to have their darling fixed
near to them for life, Liverpool seemed a long way
off ; thirdly, and which was most important of all,
there was a something—an indescribable something—
about this Louis Edwards which was unsatisfactury
to the plain-dealing and straightforward sincerity of
Mr. Osborne. He was plausible, had a reason for
everything, and though he was an American by birth
and connections, he had lived so many years in Eng-
land as to be English in his feelings. Still for all that,
and though he was a broker by trade, and hada part-
ner, a man of reputation and substance, and had altoge-
ther a very imposing manner, Mr. Osborne never liked
him; and felt so strongly that there was a something,
though it was impossible: to say what, which created
misgivings, that he and his wife refused their consent.

Edwards was dismissed; and the loving, gentle,
all-acquiescent Phebe promised to give him up. If
there be an occasion beyond all others which awakens
the affection of parents to their children—and the
Osbornes were as parents to Phebe—it is when they
see a child submissively giving up its beloved will
and wishes to their sterner reason and judgment.
The Osbornes felt thus, and thought that they could
not sufficiently show their affection to her ; and were
devising a thousand little schemes for her happiness
and indulgence, when one dreary day in November
she was gone! They could not conceive whither,
till the second day’s post brought a letter from her