THEY ARE OFF.—THEY ARE MARRIED. 149

Mrs. Proctors and Mrs. Morleys of Utceter and of
Burton-on-Trent, “ Here's a bit of news that will
take a deal of talking over. Married are they after
a six weeks courtship, and she gone off to London,
pious as she was reckoned, all on the sly, with only
her maid; why, it is not much better than being
married at Gretna Green ;” and everybody's tongue
was set in motion.

“And she really has married him after all!”
exclaimed the two brothers Bassett. “ After all, has
married the son ofa convict! Well, we hope they ’Il
go abroad, and live abroad too, and never come back
again |”

“And yet,” said they a week after the first anger,
‘we must not say anything about his father—for
the credit of the family we must not! And, seeing
she was determined to marry him, it was almost
a pity that we said so much—but after all it was only
among ourselves, so there is no great harm done—but
we wish to heaven that they may live abroad alto-
gether |”

The new Mrs, Williams wrote from London to her
brother at Burton, and informed him that it was the
joint wish of herself and her husband that the Lodge
should be now let for a term of years; that the furni-
ture should be sold by auction, and her books,
pictures, musical instruments, &c., should be depo-
sited in the hands of certain persons whom she
named. It was their intention, she said, to be
absent for some years, and she felt sure that her
dear brother, in accordance with his usual kindness
to her, would transact this business for them, and
it was the wish of her husband that he (the lawyer)
should remunerate himself for all his trouble out

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