From Chambers's Journal.
SURE TO WIN.

CHAPTER I.

You wish to hear the old man's story, my dear, and how your mother and I first made acquaintance? Well, if it will give you pleasure, so be it. The circumstances are still fresh in my memory; but if I trip, there sits the other partner in the firm-God bless her comely face!-ready to amend the record.

ban like unto the hues of the rainbow; item, one large and heavy bamboo, brass-tipped, many-knotted, with whose weight and callibre Johtee Lall was painfully familiar; and item, one red-eyed, handsome white cockatoo, reported well versed in oriental slang.

Finding, upon his return to Bayfield, a pleasant country residence called the Ferns, about two miles from the town, the colonel hired the place, furnished it with the luxuJust thirty years ago, last Hilary term, rics long residence in the cast had rendered Colonel Josiah Stark, H.E.I.C.S., C.B., ex- necessaries, and installed himself and his commander of that famous regiment the Bog-household in this new abode. Then came a glywollah Fencibles, returned home from In- difficulty. dia. Age seventeen, he sailed away, with a The colonel, after realizing his property in smiling, ruddy countenance and a gleeful India, and laying out the plan of campaign heart; age sixty-seven, he came back, with for his future life, had overlooked the fact, a sallow, war-worn visage and a diseased liver. that he must have somebody to superintend Truth compels me to admit that the colonel his household. A week's residence at the was neither prepossessing in appearance nor Ferns awakened him to the necessity. Why amiable in character. Tall, broad-shouldered, did he not engage a housekeeper? you will and grim, with large, irregular features, and say. The idea did just flit across his mind, I iron-gray hair bristling like bayonets, he did admit, and with a lordly air he looked down not strike you, even at first sight, as a man likely to do a kind action; you felt instinctively that he would have looked upon it as weakness. Woe betide the beggar who asked of him an alms! if a man, the colonel growled out a stern inquiry why a sturdy fellow like the applicant wasn't at work, or serving the king, and ominously twirled his cane; if a woman prayed assistance and bread for starving babes, he held her in conversation until a policeman passed, and then gave her in charge for vagrancy.

the columns of the Times for the article he required. As he read, a vision uprose before him of an elderly female in black, with a sharp nose and a vinegar aspect, who cast in her employer's teeth, when rebuked, the recollection of the dear departed.

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Never, no, never in all the years as we was married," the colonel seemed to hear bis housekeeper wail, " did my Mr. Kenspeckle find fault with his victuals. Never would he have allowed anybody to say an 'arsh word to his Harabella. But alas! the dear saint has long been a hangel in 'eaven, and his poor lone widder must suffer in peace.'

To which the colonel caught himself replying: “D— —n it, ma'am, and I wish you did!"

During his residence in India, Colonel Stark had shaken the pagoda-tree to some purpose. Yellow sovereigns, bright and glittering with the effigies of the first gentleman in Europe; or pleasant, crisp papyri, bearing the signature of one Mr. Abraham Newland, were the fruit he had gathered. When the colonel considered he had amassed, not enough,-no sensible man ever does,-but at any rate sufficient to live upon in comfort for the rest of his days, he turned his thoughts towards home. One crowning pleasure he reserved to be still en-years were placed at threescore and ten, and joyed, and this consisted in setting up as the great man of the neighborhood into which he had been born.

So Colonel Josiah Stark retired from the service, and returned to England, bringing with him, as appendages of his state-item, one shivering Hindu servant called Johtee Lall, attired in white garments, with a tur

Or, yet worse, he might engage a housekeeper with matrimonial views; and the colonel shuddered when he thought of what a terrible catastrophe this would be. He was rich, single, and elderly-not old; I should think not, indeed. What if the limit of man's

he only wanted three years to complete that period; age after all, is only comparative, and should be reckoned by vigor and strength of constitution.

"There's many a youngster at five and twenty not half what I am at sixty-seven,' quoth the colonel, grimly, as he tossed aloft his brawny arms. "I should be a devil of a

catch for some designing jade, I should. No; ence. Meanings and intentions of which the that would be worst of all.” poor lady was entirely innocent were attribIn short, the chances of comfort in engag-uted to all her words and actions, until, she ing a housekeeper were terribly hazardous and being of frail and nervously susceptible ordead against the colonel. Whether he was ganization, the colonel positively worried and wept at or married, the result would be suspected her into the grave. Nor did he equally fatal to happiness. entertain a more favorable opinion of her daughter or of the sex in general.

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"And what can I do with a woman that don't suit me?" pondered Colonel Stark. Cats, sir,” he would designate those de"Not what I should if we were in India.lightful creatures" cats, nothing more. There I should have a khansamaun to look Always trying to dip their whiskers in forafter the house; and if he didn't do his duty, bidden cream, and purring meekly about you, he'd be triced up at the halberds, and the to make you believe 'em honest." drummer be laying on fifty before the nigger could squeak Jack Robinson. But what are you to do with a woman?"

And the colonel groaned again in utter perplexity of spirit. Suddenly, a bright idea flashed across him-his daughter Letty! Why she was the very thing; open to none of the objections that had troubled him, his own child, who would naturally look after her old father's comfort-here the colonel grew pathetic and smooth the passage of the few remaining years he yet might have to live. Besides, there was economy in this arrangement. For eight or ten years he had been investing capital in his daughter's education; she should now repay the outlay with interest by her affection and care. So Letty Stark, aged seventeen, was brought home from school to superintend her father's household.

Coupled with universal distrust, the colonel entertained another unpleasant persuasion-this was, that all the world had entered into a conspiracy to hoodwink—or, as he expressed it, to "do"-him upon every possible occasion, which naturally begat a strong determination upon his part never to be done. Successful evasion of various artful snares had produced its necessary consequence, an overweening trust in his own sagacity and clearness of sight; so that I verily believe there did not march up and down upon the earth's surface a more selfconfident and conceited individual than he.

Now, at the time Letty Stark came to live at the Ferns, I, Caleb Stutely, was articled to my Uncle Ferrill, a solicitor in large practice at Bayfield, and the professional adviser of many of the county families round the town. He had acted as the colonel's agent for years. To his care Letty bad been con

us were children in the eyes of our sagacious elders, Letty Stark and I were very old and intimate friends indeed.

There was one peculiar feature in Colonel Stark's character which rendered him a very difficult man to agree with-this was mis-signed upon her mother's death in India; by trust. The author of his own fortunes, com- him she had been placed at the same school pelled from early youth to keep a watchful with my sister Grace, now in London, mareye upon his interests and expenditure, the ried; in his house the girls had always spent habit had increased with age to universal sus- their holidays; and the inevitable consepicion. He may have had cause. A long ex-quence of all this was, that though both of perience of men in an arduous profession has taught me that the majority will swindle you if they can. I don't mean to say there are not exceptions, but there being such only proves the correctness of the rule. Never give any one an opportunity to get the advantage of you, and you will be spared many vexations and much loss. This is my candid opinion as a professional man. I should charge a stranger six-and-eightpence for the advice; but I give it you, reader, for nothing.

At what precise period of my acquaintance with Letty I first began to-to-well, to feel a tendre towards her, at this distance of time I am quite unable to say; I only know that, when the sentiment did manifest itself, its growth was marvellous. Like Jack's beanstalk, it sprang up in a night. The first symptoms were, an unusual diffiStill, there are limits to all things. Col- dence, a strange embarrassment in Letty's onel Stark stepped over the limits, and dis- presence, exaggerated by a painful sense of trusted everybody without distinction. personal deficiency. Up to that hour, I had causeless jealousy poisoned his wife's exist- thought I was rather a good-looking fellow

His

than otherwise; thenceforth, I believed my- charmer's slender waist, my lips in the act self hideous; I depreciated my teeth, I ab- of imprinting a salute upon her tender cheek. horred my budding whiskers, I considered my When I subsequently raised my eyes, they figure anything but fine. Of a night, I es- encountered the wrathful orbs of the colonel, tablished myself before the looking-glass in glaring through the blossoms of a passionmy bedroom, with a candle on each side the flower. Medusa's head could not have turned mirror, and fell to abusing my perfections Perseus, if he had only happened to see it, seriatim. into more sudden stone. Colonel Stark burst in upon us like a tornado. "Come along, come along, you

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you

"Call this coarse, ropy fibre hair!" I would exclaim, holding up my hyacinthine locks-which, by the way, must be surely jade!" he shouted, hauling my poor girl by the wrist into the midst of the astonished dancers. "I'll put a stop to this. We'll have no more billing and cooing behind the old man's back, I promise you. Be off this instant; toss on your things, and order the carriage! And as for you, young Parchment," continued the colonel, turning to me, and thrusting his bony fist like a smellingbottle close under my nose, "damme, sir, I've a great mind to break every blank bone in your blank, rascally, pettifogging carcass."

blue. "Ah! look at Letty's, curling around her delicate head like the tendrils about a sweet young vine. That a complexion, that mottled, sunburnt skin! Not for a second to be likened to my Letty's lovely red and white, blending so exquisitely that you cannot note the line where lily blushes into rose. And I to aspire to such perfection! I wonder at, and hate myself for the presumption."

I made a great fool of myself, my dear, but I had taken the fever badly, and went regularly through all the stages of the disorder. However, in spite of my conviction of The commotion occasioned by this proceed-Letty's infinite superiority, I did somehow ing may be easily imagined. Letty rushed one day muster courage to enter my suit. with crimsoned countenance to the door, folPerhaps my pleading was too eloquent to be lowed by many of the younger ladies, who resisted; perhaps the judge was kindly dis- were indignant at the colonel's coarse vioposed towards me; anyhow, the summing-lence, and stood by their order. The more up was entirely in my favor, and, to my ex-severely virtuous and moral-wall-flowers treme delight, the verdict also. Therewith, these mostly, by the way-drew themselves one step in advance was certainly made, yet up with an air of conscious rectitude, and not the most important one. It was all very frowned reproof upon the culprits. For my well, and gratifying enough to the parties part, I was furious. I recollect making a especially concerned, for Caleb Stutely, bach-rush at the colonel, with some vague intenelor, and Letitia Stark, spinster, both of the tion of choking him summarily upon the parish of Bayfield, to exchange vows of eter-spot, but was promptly collared and held off nal constancy and plight each other their by my Uncle Ferrill. Others threw themtroth, as these two rash young persons did selves between us, and edged me into a corupon various notable occasions; but they ner, while the colonel was half persuaded, were not, after all, the chief parties to be half hustled from the room. In five minutes consulted. What would the colonel say, more, I heard the carriage which contained when he came to hear of the matter? Ah! my Letty drive away. what did he say? Even after the lapse of thirty years, I still shudder at the remembrance. The event happened at a party given by my Uncle Ferril at his house in Bayfield. Hunting about with his customary suspicion, Colonel Stark observed that his daughter and I were absent from the room; he instantly proceeded in search of us. As ill-luck would have it, Letty and, I having just finished a quadrille, were at that moment resting upon a seat in the adjoining conservatory, my arm entwined about my

This untoward accident broke up the party; gentility both dreads and loves nothing so much as a scene, and here had been a scene with a vengeance. One by one our guests pleaded fatigue, or alleged other pretexts for what was in reality desire to get away and talk over what had taken place; and in a short time my Uncle Ferril and I were left alone.

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Well, Nephew Caleb?" said my uncle, calmly, raising his eyebrows into notes of interrogation, when the last visitor had quit

ted the house. "This is a pretty business, | kind of action to that you hint at, to bear truly. Don't you feel ashamed of yourself, upon the colonel, uncle," I retorted, bitterly. Bir?"

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6

"I pass over the personal insult, however; I can treat that with disdain; but the cruel annoyance to which he has subjected Letty is quite another matter, and for that I shall certainly call him to account."

And I paced up and down the drawingroom in great exasperation.

My uncle was a bit of a philosopher in his way. He leaned back in his chair, and watched me for a minute or two with some amusement.

"It's curious," he said presently, "to observe how completely passion blinds even tolerably sensible persons to positive fact. Here have you, by an ill-timed display of attachment to Letty Stark, provoked her father to exercise his legal authority as a parent over that infant, and you now feel immensely indignant at the consequences of your own act,-have the goodness to pick up the chair you have just kicked over, if you please. The set is valuable. Thank you. You feel indignant, I repeat and threaten Colonel Stark with personal violence—most reprehensible and unprofessional, I must say

"Not a bit," I answered, stoutly. "There's no shame in liking a charming girl like Letty, I should hope, uncle. The only shame in the matter belongs to her brute of a father, who called me a pettifogger too-confound him! If you hadn't stopped me, uncle, I'd have had an apology out of the old tyrant, or I'd have known the reason why!" "Pish!" replied Uncle Ferril, leisurely taking snuff. You speak like a very young man, nephew. If you really felt offended at a hasty expression, the law affords the remedy. Colonel Stark is a man of substance, and the epithet is no doubt actionable. See Skinnum v. Jagg, Q. B. Rep. 44, where, defendant telling plaintiff he was no gentleman, plaintiff obtained a verdict upon the ground of being entitled by act of parliament to write himself Esquire. Again, Diachylon v. The O'Blatherum, M. P., C. Pl. xvi. 96, is even more in point. In this case, an Irish defendant refused to defray plaintiff's charges for plastering a broken head. Defendant, who had been bred to the bar, conducted his defence in person, and becoming excited, pleaded that plaintiff was only a low thief of an apothecary,' not a duly qualified practitioner; but Bluck, C.B., quoted high authority to show that the objection was shabby, and could not stand. Same plaintiff then brought a second action, arising out of the former, against same defendant, for the libel uttered in open court. Defendant pleaded license of council as a justification; but a erdict was recorded against him. He appealed, and carried the case before all the tribunals, until it reached the House of Lords, where judgment was finally delivered in original plaintiff's favor-Bruffum, at that time chancellor, opining defendant would have had a better plea if he had alleged irresponsibility from imperfect cure; as it was evident upon the merits, that all (if any of) the brains originally knocked out could not have been replaced. A full report of these interesting and impotant proceedings will be found in Patter and Clatter's Remarkable Cases, t. 87. But with respect to Colonel Stark, I leave you to judge how far an action against the father would advance your suit The position was certainly awkward. But with the daughter." while it was simply unpleasant to me, for Let"I should have brought a very different ty it was really serious. To be the subject

because he rightfully rebukes his daughter for impropriety of conduct. Love, Caleb, appears strangely at variance with logic in your mind. May I trouble you to replace the coal-scuttle?"

"Then you actually mean to defend the man's brutality, uncle?" I demanded in greater anger than ever. My uncle had a most annoying way of putting things, which made him scem generally in the right.

"No, Caleb; there you mistake. Your usually clear mind is not apparently at this moment able to perceive the true gist of my argument. I do not excuse the manner in which Colonel Stark thought proper to exert his authority; I only assert his undoubted right, and your consequent unreasonableness; that is all. And now we will proceed to discuss what had better be done.”

So my uncle, having satisfied Lis forensic mind by placing the question in its correct legal bearing, yielded to his natural kindly heart, and sympathized with my unfortunate love-trouble as fully as an unprofessional uncle might have done.

of comment for the sneers and innuendoes of | posit his cane in its accustomed corner, hang the malicious and the spiteful, is bad enough in an extensive sphere; in the little circle that constituted the Bayfield world, it was social death. Letty must be rescued from this situation without delay. My uncle therefore undertook to proceed next morning to the Ferns, and propose in due form for the immediate recognition of our engagement.

up his hat on its usual peg, slowly draw off his gloves, and folding one within the other, place them in his pocket, and sink into the comfort of his leather-backed chair, before he prepared to deliver his report. As for expecting to gain a clue to what had passed from the expression of his countenance, was he not a solicitor of many years' standing? But I was too eager now to give these circamstances due weight.

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What will be

"Unfavorable. Very little-nothing. Not at all," returned my uncle, laconically answering my questions seriatim.

This decided, I felt comparatively at ease. Sanguine and tolerably self-assured, I had little fear that the colonel would not consider Well, uncle?" I repeated, hastily, me a fit match for his daughter. My uncle" what did old Stark say? was wealthy, and I was his heir; I had prop- do? When can I see Letty?” erty of my own even then; and when my articles expired, I was to enter the firm. Some trifling difficulty might perhaps be raised upon the score of unequal rank, but the colonel had no ancestry whose names might be offended by a mésalliance, while I was the descendant of an ancient family. Even my uncle admitted that he did not believe this obstacle would be insuperable.

Alas! short-sighted lawyers that we were! Neither of us conceived in what direction the actual hindrance would be found.

CHAPTER II.

"Good heavens, uncle! Why, what can you mean?"

"Just this-it is not Colonel Stark's intention to permit Miss Letty to marry."

"Not at present, I suppose. Well, no matter. We are young, and we can wait. What time did he fix for probation, uncle?"

"The colonel mentioned no particular period, Caleb," pursued Uncle Ferril. "The impression he conveyed to me, in fact, was that he did not intend Miss Letty to marry at all."

"What! never?" I roared.

"Why, the

WERE I to live to the age of Methuselah, which Heaven forbid, I should never forget the tremor of nervous anxiety in which I unconscionable old barbarian! Does he expassed the time of my uncle's absence upon pect to keep the poor girl in single wretchedhis mission to the Ferns. ness all her days?"

Very sagacious people aver that whenever you have to wait for anything, time passes quickest in occupation. I am not prepared to deny the fact, but I do maintain that in this particular men are at a disadvantage. Ladies are more favorably placed. Many ways of employing time are open to them which are closed to the sterner sex. The excitement of recovering a dropped stitch, the absorption of rectifying a mistaken pattern, are exhaustless sources of feminine delight. It will not seem singular, then, that I considered the two hours and twenty-five minutes of Uncle Ferril's absence at least thrice that period. When he finally returned, I sprang to meet him.

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Well, uncle," I exclaimed, "what news?"

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Something very nearly approaching thereto, I am afraid, Caleb,” replied Uncle Ferril, with a sigh. "The colonel's line of argument, so far as I was able to follow it, appeared to be this. He has no especial objection to you personally, further than that you Now, my Uncle Ferril was a very method- desire to take away his child—to rob him of ical man. Nothing less than an earthquake, her, was his expression. You seem a deI think, could have moved him to omit a cent young fellow enough, he obligingly obhabit; so I was not surprised to see him de- | served, and would probably make as good a