"I told him then," continued Mr. Bradshaw, "that he would take '_the crooked stick at last_;' but that he should not add a tress of Selina's hair to his collection, to be turned over by _his_ WIFE one of those days. Of course he was very indignant, and we parted; but I did not think my prophecy would come true so soon. I have long since given up speculating how marriages will turn out, for it is quite impossible to tell. If women could be shut up in a harem, as in the East, a man who was ashamed of his wife might go into society without her; but for a refined and well-educated gentleman, as Edward Layton certainly is, to be united to the _widow_ of a sugar-boiler!--yes, absolutely!--who is an inch shorter than pretty Lelia and more tiger-headed than Lizzy Grey, and who declares she hates music, although her dear first husband took her _h_often to the Hopera--who adds deformity to shortness, talks loudly of the _h_influence of wealth, and compares the presentations at the Mansion House, that she has seen, to those at St. James's which she has not yet seen! Verily, Edward Layton has had _his reward_!" * * * * * BULWER LYTTON contributes to the "Keepsake" an essay, characteristic of his earlier rather than of his later style: THE CONFIRMED VALETUDINARIAN. Certainly there is truth in the French saying, that there is no ill without something of good. What state more pitiable to the eye of a man of robust health than that of the Confirmed Valetudinarian? Indeed, there is no one who has a more profound pity for himself than your Valetudinarian; and yet he enjoys two of the most essential requisites for a happy life; he is never without an object of interest, and he is perpetually in pursuit of hope.