men in the yards, condescend to take orders from me. It was but yesterday that I told the butler I would not allow claret in the steward's room, and the fellow, instead of obeying, had the impudence to say, "Very well, Sir, I will consult Lady Cherubina about it." As to my lady's maid, and a housekeeper she brought with her from Brandon, before them I dare not say my soul's my own.'

"All this astonishes me,' said I, 'particularly this last; for whatever thraldom you may be in, with a wife whom your love alone might make you unwilling to oppose, to be afraid of these menials-your own menials, too—is beyond my comprehension.'

66 6

6

'Perhaps so,' replied he, but be assured in their opinion I am a mere upstart. Their talk is all of Brandon Hall, and the nobility who lived there for ages, before canals, and wharfs, and barges were known. My lord, his lordship, and my lady and her ladyship, are never off their tongues; not from any particular respect for them, but from very great respect for themselves, since every time they give them their titles they elevate their own dignity. It was but the other day, having occasion to look at something in the housekeeper's-room, the lady president there, with fury on her brow, began to talk at me; telling me in terms, that neither Lord Brandon, nor his father before him, demeaned himself so as to come into her apartment.'

“Why did you not discharge her instantly?' asked I.

“Alas!' said he, you know not what it is to be

married, not merely to a person whom you love, but to one who, being so much superior to you in rank and family, feels both her superior consequence, and how much she has let herself down in joining her fate to yours. To discharge therefore an old, though insolent, servant, attached to her family before she was born, would baffle even your resolution to accomplish, and is, in fact, impossible.'

"I see not why,' said I, ' if the case required it.' "It would occasion a breach,' returned he, and expose me to open reproaches, and perpetual innuendoes, the last more difficult to bear than the first, though both most annoying to my peace.'

"You have then experienced these innuendoes?'

66 6

My dear friend,' said he, 'there is no disguising the truth; indeed, to reveal it, and ask your counsel upon it, was one of my great objects in begging you to come to see me. It was pretty obvious to me, when I married Lady Cherubina, that I was taken upon sufferance, at least by her family; and though I believe I possessed her affection at first, and she seemed grateful for the absolute dominion I gave her over myself and fortune, I soon found that her consciousness of her cloth of gold was incompatible with any respect for my cloth of frieze. But alas! this is by no means the worst.'

"He then, in increased agitation, with deep sighs, and even tears, after much hesitation, whispered in my ear, though no one was near us—

"You will scarcely believe it, but she will not now allow me to enter her boudoir.'

"Good Heavens!' exclaimed I, for what reason ?'

"Why, she had observed, she said, that nothing deadened the pleasure which married people take in one another's company so much as too frequent and too long interviews, in the power of either to command at pleasure; that it was the height of vulgarity, to be always running after one another, and allow no place to be sacred from mutual intrusion; and that, from girlhood, she had always been accustomed to have an apartment so entirely her own, that her father, when alive, and afterwards her brother, had always refrained from breaking in upon her retirement. She hoped, therefore, I would not be offended if she requested to be allowed the same privilege, notwithstanding our nearer connection. It leaves my mind,' she said, ‘a power of expanding itself with a freedom upon whatever engages me, for which I am always the better; and then you know,' she added, our meetings after these little absences in solitude are always the pleasanter.'

"Though I own I did not much relish this proposal, and thought it was not exactly the custom of married people, or that there was any vulgarity in a husband and wife wishing to be together, yet she talked of the matter so prettily, and made the proposal with so much sentiment and delicacy, that I could not help admiring her.'

"You assented, of course?' said I.

666 Why what could I do? I did not like to be held up to her aristocratic relations as a vulgar husband,

and they, as well as she, assured me that what was proposed was always the custom in very high families; that the higher the parties, the more their independence of one another, and that nothing so much denoted superior quality and fashion as this domestic rule. I trust, therefore, you do not blame me?'

"I assured him I pitied more than blamed him, and hoped for better things.

"He said he hoped so too, but found he had been doing so for twelve months in vain; in short, 'She treats me,' said he, like a vassal. She has already become indifferent to my wishes and plans of domestic comfort, in the enjoyment of her society upon a more retired scale than suits her taste. She is, as you see, of a very superior mould, and commanding though cold temperament; which, added to an internal contempt for my mean origin, leads her perpetually abroad, dispensing with me as a companion; or if, and whenever, at home, she requires to be surrounded by her whole clan, who all look up to her, and down upon me, though fond enough of the good quarters they always find provided for them.'

"Neither my fortune nor my sense of independence will stand this, and yet I am so wanting in true spirit that I know not how to break from under it. Alas! every way your caution as to unequal marriages is now brought home to me. Lady Cherubina herself is not the wife I thought she would be, or whom I ought to have chosen; and as to her cousins and dear friends, they remind me of Penelope's suitors. But

her ladyship, unfortunately, is no more Penelope than

I Ulysses.'

"Meantime,' added he, I have not a friend in the world to open myself to but you, and I hailed your arrival as that of an ally, who would at least give me good counsel, if he could not actually deliver me.' "It were easier,' I replied, seeing him pause, give advice, than to take it. And I could and would give it but for one objection, strong, perhaps insuperable.'

"At least let me know it.'

'to

"Yourself. For with Lady Macbeth, of her husband, I may say,

"And what is that way ?' asked he.

"Discharge these saucy menials, whether your own or Lady Cherubina's. I would almost say discharge Lady Cherubina herself, rather than live in such disgraceful thraldom.'

"This, and the warmth with which I said it, had an effect not unexpected on my too easy friend. He started, turned pale, and exclaimed, You are too bold; you know not what you say.'

that nothing

“I know it so perfectly,' said I, short of being prepared and ready to go the whole length of it will ever release you from your chains.'

"Perhaps,' rejoined he- perhaps (I am not sure) I might screw myself up to the dismissal of servants, who think they have only a mistress, not a master.