STEYNE'S GRIEF; OR, LOSING, SEEKING, AND FINDING. PART FIRST.-LOSING. CHAPTER FIRST. IN THE PORCH. "Ay, marry! marry! marry?' Mother, what does " marry' mean?'-'It means to spin, to bear children, and to weep, my daughter.' And, of a truth, there is something more in matrimony than the wedding ring !"-LONGFELLOW. Aspettare e non venire, Star in letto e non dormire, Servire e non gradire, Son tre cose da morire." ITALIAN PROVERB. "T' await and hope what cometh not, AUTH. TRANS. CARY HINTON stood at her door, in the twilight. Perhaps it was because Cary was so pretty, and so very young to assume the honours of wifehood, that she had never yet been accorded the dignity of mistress. Her husband's name was Hinton. She had been lawfully married to him in the sight of half the No. 1. B village, viz., the female portion; and yet she had never, beyond a time or two, been addressed, or spoken of, as Mrs. Hinton. One fact there was might have something to do with it; she had lived in the village ever since she was born, somewhere about eighteen years and seven months; and all that time had been known as "Cary." They might have gone a little further, and given her the benefit of "Deering," which stood after it in the parish register; but they hadn't, and so perhaps considered that to concede the matronly title with the surname would be too much of a good thing, and, that the honour might not be overwhelming, contented themselves with the addition of the latter: and " Cary Hinton" was universally accepted. One thing is certain, the owner did not trouble herself about the name; if she noticed it at all, the chances are she did not bestow a second thought upon it; ideas so much more important occupied her little head. The possession of a four-roomed cottage, and garden thereto, with all necessary appurtenances and furniture, by one whose whole experience had been that of a workhouse foundling, and the dependant in a rich, capricious household, would, we may imagine, give ample cause for occupation: but it was not her baking, washing, starching, ironing, cooking, mending, or making, that constituted Cary's chief theme of thought: she was au fait, “up," in all these branches of domestic management: they were but pastime to her. The workhouse training had done this for her, —that there was not a better housewife, of even four times her age, in the whole country round. |