148 THEY ARE OFF.—THEY ARE MARRIED.

Mr. Isaacs said it need, for that Williams had sud-
denly called for two hundred pounds out of the busi-
ness, which he said had worried him no little. Wil-
liams was gone off with a good deal of luggage, and had
said that he should not be back at present, but that
he would write. Here was news of astonishment for
Reynolds! He was gone, no doubt, after his father
and sister; the two hundred pounds was for their
use ; he was gone to settle them comfortably some-
where; he rose at once fifty per cent. in his
young partner's estimation ; he was welcome to draw
two hundred pounds from the business ; Reynolds
would almost have given it to him. These were his
thoughts, and he replied cheerfully to his senior,
“Well, I don’t see that we need trouble ourselves
about that ; he takes no part in the business now, and
we are just as well without him as with him.”

“ But,” said Mr. Isaacs angrily, “ it’s an unpleasant
thing to have money drawn out at a minute's warning
——to be sure the firm has money in the bank—but
with his twenty thousand pounds—and he a bachelor
—he should not do it !”

“ Here is news!” exclaimed Reynolds within a very
few days, looking up from the London paper which
he was reading. “ Now listen, Mr. Isaacs, and I
shall amaze you,— and he read—‘ On Saturday, the
7th inst., at St. George’s, Hanover Square, Edward
Lewis Williams, Esquire, of Utceter, to Emmeline,
sole daughter of the late George Vernon Bassett,
Esquire, of Henshall Hall, Staffordshire.’ ”

“* And he really is married, is he?” exclaimed the
old man. “At St. George's, Hanover Square !
Bless me!”

“Well, here’s a bit of news!” exclaimed all the