6 VILLAGE BELLES. express purpose of making her an offer. He was only too The mind turns with pleasure from this matrimonial concert to the neglected young pair in Summerfield vicarage. Catharine Wellford, perfectly satisfied with the companion and station she had chosen for life, yet felt a little natural compunetion at having dared to make herself happy in opposition to the will of those whom nature had constituted her arbiters. She endeavoured, therefore, to atone for her breach of filial obedience by humble letters to her parents; but as they remained true to that inflexibility of purpose which, exercised in daily minutiæ, had in a great measure driven their daughter from her home, she at length abstained from appeals which she found to be useless. Nothing could be much less inviting than the first appearance of Summerfield vicarage. It was a small, dull-looking, red-brick building, such as may often be seen inhabited by the curés of the French provinces, having a little inverted battlement-like brickwork ornament,-stay, what is the architectural word? dentils-a row of square teeth, as it were, running along the front; a tiled roof, and heavy latticed windows with deep seats; an ungainly looking house, in short, but one which like some plain women, might be rendered attractive by dress and decoration. A smoky parlour on one side of the hall or passage, a small study on the other, kitchen and et ceteras behind, stairs up and down at every corner, and four oddly shaped bedrooms above. The garden, separated from the churchyard by a ruinous paling, was filled on one side with potatoes, on the other with cauliflowers run to seed; and the walks were verdant with moss. Such was the home to which Henry Wellford, who had only been presented to the vicarage just before his marriage, brought the young bride who had hitherto been accustomed to every comfort except that of kindness. Without complaining of their lot, they immediately set about the improvement of the face of things around them. The parlour chimney was cured of smoking, the walls were papered, book-shelves and curtains put up, the garden walks cleared, evergreens planted, and the palings mended and painted. Having made this promising beginning, Mr. and Mrs. Wellford had leisure to study each other's characters and those of their neighbours. Henry found his wife possessed of an ardent, inquiring mind which had hitherto been little cultivated, and a disposition which not even constant irritation had been able to spoil, prone to repent of its hasty errors, and full of charity and melting kindness. In each other's society they felt no weariness, but neither of them was of a temper so fastidious as to turn with distaste from those among whom Providence had placed them, because their habits were less refined than their own. Almost immediately opposite the church, in a residence known as Okely Park, and which only required better keeping up to make it rank as a handsome country seat lived old Lady Worral. The only two houses with sash-windows in the village were tenanted, the one by Mr. Good, the apothecary, the other by Mr. Greenway, a retired schoolmaster. Farmer Holland, the happy parent of three bouncing daughters, occupied a substantial dwelling in the midst of his corn-fields, about half a mile from Summerfield. The remaining population consisted of tradespeople and peasantry, who received the conciliatory visits of the new vicar and wife with civility and gratitude. On nearer acquaintance with the superior class of their neighbours, they discovered that old Lady Worral was busy and interfering, eccentric in her dress, and blunt in her manners; Mr. and Mrs. Good the best people in the world; Mr. Greenway a martyr to the rheumatism, and his wife a fetcher and carrier of other people's observations; Farmer Holland a complete John Bull, with his joke and tankard; and the three Miss Hollands handsome, cheerful, and bustling. Young Mrs. Wellford was at first rather annoyed by the constant supervision of her titled neighbour; for old Lady Worral was always popping in upon her, in the garden, the parlour, or the kitchen; but she soon ceased to care whether she was caught |