"Why, alderman," said his wife (a name she never used unless she had something to gain from her spouse, who loved to hear the appellation after he had relinquished the office), "it appears to me that Harry has shown nothing but a proper spirit. You are unkind--indeed you are." "A proper spirit? In what way? Do you know anything of the matter?" "It is a proper spirit for a soldier to fight, I suppose," said the wife, a little at a loss to explain. "Spirit, or no spirit, apology, or ten and sixpence." "Harry," said his mother, holding up her finger in a menacing attitude, as soon as her husband had left the room (for he had last spoken with the door in his hand), "if you do beg his pardon, you are no son of mine." "No," cried Miss Sarah, "nor any brother of mine. It would be insufferably mean." "Who will pay my debts?" asked the son, looking up at the ceiling. "Why, I would, my child, if--if--I had not spent my own allowance." "I would," echoed the sister; "but if we go to Bath, you know, I shall want all my money." "Who will pay my debts?" repeated the son. "Apology, indeed! Who is he, that you, a son of Alderman--of--Mr. Jarvis, of the deanery, B----, North 'amptonshire, should beg his pardon--a vagrant that nobody knows!" "Who will pay my debts?" again inquired the captain drumming with his foot. "Harry," exclaimed the mother, "do you love money better than honor--a soldier's honor?" "No, mother; but I like good eating and drinking. Think mother; it's a cool five hundred, and that's a famous deal of money." "Harry," cried the mother, in a rage, "you are not fit for a soldier. I wish I were in your place." "I wish, with all my heart, you had been for an hour this morning," thought the son. After arguing for some time longer, they compromised, by agreeing to leave it to the decision of Colonel Egerton, who, the mother did not doubt, would applaud her maintaining the Jarvis dignity, a family in which he took quite as much interest as he felt for his own- -so he had told her fifty times. The captain, however, determined within himself to touch the five hundred, let the colonel decide as he might; but the colonel's decision obviated all difficulties. The question was put to him by Mrs. Jarvis, on his return from the airing, with no doubt the decision would be favorable to her opinion. The colonel and herself, she said, never disagreed; and the lady was right--for wherever his interest made it desirable to convert Mrs. Jarvis to his side of the question, Egerton had a manner of doing it that never failed to succeed.