“Hallo!” I said, “what does this mean?”
“Oh, nothing at all, Mas’r Harry; only now I’m settled as a gentleman of property I’m going to be married.”
“Don’t you believe him, Master Harry,” said Sally; “it’s all his nonsense,” and she was scarlet as she spoke.
“Don’t you believe her, Mas’r Harry,” said Tom grinning; “she promised me she would, and she can’t draw back, can she?”
“Certainly not, Tom,” I said. “A lady’s under her bond just as a gentleman is.”
“There! hear that, Sally?” said Tom.
“Yes, I hear,” she said, “so I suppose I must;” and Sally spoke in quite a resigned way, keeping her word to Tom within three months, my father saying that Sally had been the most faithful of servants, and had forced upon them all her little savings in the time of their distress.
You may be sure I did not forget this on the day when my father gave her away, and Tom had a nice little dowry with his wife.
It may be thought that, with so great a sum of money—so large a fortune—I must have lived in great splendour during the rest of my life. But it was not so. Certainly I have always since enjoyed the comfort of a pleasant, well-kept, unostentatious home; but the fact is this—it was my fate to marry a woman generous almost to a fault. As you have seen, she began by giving the greatest treasure I found in the New World—herself—to me; and then, upon the strength of our having plenty of money, she was of opinion that its proper purpose was being spent in doing good to others.
My uncle and Mrs Landell were settled in a pleasant little estate of their own; and after a great deal of persuasion my father was induced to take upon himself the position of a country gentleman. One way and another our income became shrunk down to very reasonable proportions; though, after Lilla has done all the good that she can in the course of the year, we have always a little to spare.