The Three Clerks

f enabling Londoners to live in the country, have turned the country into a city. London will soon assume the shape of a great starfis

l charm, and the little village of Hampton, with its old-fashioned country inn, and its bright, quiet, grassy river, is one of them, in spite o

st from town, they inhabited not a villa, but a small old-fashioned brick house, abutting on to the

it; it sloped prettily to the river, and was absolutely secluded from the road. Thus Surbiton Cottage, as it was called, though

daughters. There was afterwards added to this an old gentleman, an uncle of Mrs. Woodward's, but

very young, and while the third was still a baby. From that time Mrs. Woodward had lived at the cottage at Hampton, and had there maintained a good rep

of her husband's death she was a young and a very pretty woman; and an income of ￡400 a year, though moderate enough for all the wants of

had all of them declared over and over again that the young widow would certainly marry again, were now becoming as unanimous in their

oint, as widows of forty should be, with pretty fat feet, and pretty fat hands; wearing just a soup?on of a widow's cap on her head,

t has said that women are all rakes at heart; and there was something of the rake at heart about Mrs. Woodward. She never could be got to express adequate horror at fast young men, and was apt to

ttached to their mother, looked on her as the only perfect woman in existence, and would willingly do nothing that could vex her; but they perhaps were not quite so systematicall

than her, and were nearly of a height. But in appearance, as in disposition, Gertrude carried by far the greater air of command. She was the handsomer of the two, and the cleverer. She could write French and nearly speak it, while her sister could on

so young a girl should be. In her had been magnified that spirit of gentle raillery which made so attractive a part of her mother's character. She enjoyed and emulated her mother's quick sharp sayings, but she hardly did so with

their early days, they lived together as sisters should do. Gertrude, when she spoke of fools, never intended to include Linda i

air promise to be at any rate equal to her sisters in beauty, and in mind was quick and intelligent. Her great taste was for boating, and the romance of her life consisted

y evenings and Sundays at the home of his relatives. In summer he could row up in his own wherry, and land himself and carpet-bag direct on the Woodwards' lawn, and in the winter he came down by the Hampton Court five p.m. train-and in each case he returned on the Monday morning. Thus, as regards that portion

ve him on every Saturday without telling him much of his friends whom he went to visit, and he could hardly say much of them without offering to

y when the provocation to do so might come; they were, in short, Gertrude and Linda Woodward, and not the Miss Woodwards: their drawers came down below their frocks, instead of their frocks below their drawers; and in lieu of studying the French language, as is done by

ercourse in the household took place as they sat cosy over the last embers of the drawing-room fire, chatting about everything and nothing, as girls always can do, after Tudor had gone away to his bed at the inn, on the opposite side of the way. And

tly than of yore, and the world resident on that portion of the left bank of the Thames found out that Harry Norman and Gertrude Woodward were to be man and wife, and that Alaric Tudor and Linda Woodward were to go through the same c

at the two young men were fit to be husbands to her daughters, and she felt that if the wish for such an alliance should spring up between either pair, there was no reason why she should interfere to prevent it. But she felt also that she should not interfere to bring any such matter to pass. These young people had by c

towards the discretion of womanhood, they were of the age when they would have been regarded as mere boys had they belonged to the other sex. The assertion made by Clara Van Artevelde, that women 'grow upon the sunny side of the w

hat she advised them well and often-but she did so, p

in the tale-but, be that as it may, it so occurred that Gertrude, before she was nineteen, had listened to vows of love from Harry Norman, which she neither accepted nor repud

s friend scores of times that it was the first wish of his heart to marry Gertrude Woodward;

his boat softly past the green banks of Richmond-'she is as proud as a queen, and yet as timid as a fawn. She lets me tell her that I love her,

his friend, and a little less romantic. To this Harry answered nothing, but, laying his back to

Linda,' said he, resting again from his labou

u mean is, that you wish I could brin

Harry, finding it much easier to answer for Linda tha

the prettier of th

, getting rather red in the f

not murder me, man. You want me to make up to Linda, and surely

m you like; but to say

you know, it

low; then to oblige you

tru

are not so very fond of each other; but, joking

en my aunt leave

the conversation as they walked up together from the

uld. It is to be hoped that he spent them in divine worship; but it may, we fear, be surmised with more probability, that he paid his devotions at the shrine of some very inferior public-house deity in the neighbourhood of Somerset House. As a matter of course

find him very rough,'

a fool,' said Norman, who was alw

e next Saturday, let him by all means do so. Pray give my com

introduced among the angels of Surbiton Cottage. Mrs. Woodward thought that she had a

nate; and, though too apt to be noisy and even boisterous when much encouraged, was not without a certain innate genuine modesty, which the knowledge of his own iniquities had rather increased than blunted; and, as Norman had said o

ustere precision of her parlour-maid might be offended by some unworthy familiarity; but no accident of either kind seemed to occur.

urs in smoking and attacking the parlour-maid. He went to church, however, and seemed in no whit astray there; stood up when others stood up, and sa

him again. No day was fixed, and so Charley could not accompany his cousin and Harry Norman on the next Saturday; but it was not long before he got anoth

of nothing less than an offer to come and live with them for the remaining term of his natural life. Now Mrs. Woodward's girls had seen very little of their grand-uncle, and what little they had seen had only taught them to laugh at him. When hi

they one and all, for Katie was one of the council, s

id Linda, 'and stop our rations, and m

s old hunks, though mam

the impudence of

suits,' said Gertrude, more thoughtfully,

support. She had always regarded Captain Cuttwater as a probable source of future aid. He was childless and unmarried, and had not, as far as she was aware, another relative in the world. It would, therefore, under any circumstances, be bad policy to offend him. But the letter in which he had made his offer had been of a very peculiar kind. He had begun by saying that he was to be turned out of his present berth by a d-- Whig Government on account of his age, he being as young a man as ever he had been; that it behoved him to look out for a place of residence, in w

nough to make him of some consequence wherever he went; and she therefore conceived that she could not with prudence send him to seek a home among chance strang

t Surbiton Cottage, and it will show how far Charley had then made good his

great man to be h

'that is, perhaps, before the end of this

s he like?'

nging down behind, lik

ti

ome he must be treated with respect; but it is a great

so. Destroy all the pleasure of life to have an old gentleman live in the s

' said Gertrude, 'but you kno

ptain Cuttwater wears a

rs,' said Gertrude; 'he m

; 'that would be so delicious. Oh, Linda, f

. Woodward, 'but your uncle does not wear even

sorry,' s

o dine early, and go to

lessing,' said Gertrude, mindful of their

a blessing at all,' said Linda, w

the worst of it,' said Katie, 'for

g gently, 'we shall no longer have a bed

othing very bad in it. He could have a bed at the inn as well as Alaric

t of Captain Cuttw