We saw it was best to wait till dinner was over before we spoke to him; and, indeed, we were right, for he dined very heartily, finished the two bottles every glass, and got so happy and comfortable that Mary Anne sat down to the piano to sing for him. "Thank you, my darling," said he, when she was done. "I 've no doubt that the song is a fine one, and that you sung it well, but I can't follow the words, nor appreciate the air. I like something that touches me either with an old recollection, or by some suggestion for the future; and if you 'd try and remember the 'Meeting of the Waters,' or 'Where's the Slave so lowly'--" "I 'm afraid, sir, I cannot gratify you," said she; and it was all she could do to get out of the room before he heard her sobbing. "What's the matter, Jemi," said he, "did I say anything wrong? Is Molly angry with me?" "Will you tell me," said I, "when you ever said anything right? Or do you do anything from morning till night but hurt the feelings and dance upon the tenderest emotions of your whole family? I've submitted to it so long," said I, "that I have no heart left in me to complain; but now that you drive me to it, I 'll tell you my mind;" and so I did, Molly, till he jumped up at last, put on his hat, and rushed downstairs into the street. After which I went to my room, and cried till bedtime! As poor Mary Anne said to me, "There was a refined cruelty in that request of papa's I can never forget;" nor is it to be expected she should! The next morning at breakfast he was in a better humor, for the table was covered with delicacies of every kind, fruit and liqueurs besides. "Not dear at eightpence, Jemi," he 'd say, at every time he filled his plate. "Just think the way one is robbed by servants, when you see what can be had for a 'zwanziger;'" and he made Cary take down a list of the things, just to send to the "Times," and show how the English hotels were cheating the public. We saw that this was a fine opportunity to tell him about James, and so Mary Anne undertook the task. "And so he never went to London at all," he kept repeating all the while. No matter what she said about the Countess, and her fortune, and her great connections; nothing came out of his lips but the same words. "Don't you perceive," said I, at last, for I could n't bear it any longer, "that he did better,--that the boy took a shorter and surer road in life than a shabby place under the Crown!" "May be so," said he, with a deep sigh,--"may be so! but I ought to be excused if I don't see at a glance how any man makes his fortune by marriage!" I knew that he meant that for a provocation, Molly, but I bit my lips and said nothing. We then explained to him that we had sent off a note to the Countess, asking her to pass a few weeks with us, and were in hourly expectation of her arrival. He gave another heavy sigh, and drank off a glass of Curaçoa.