CHAPTER V. The way is plain before us-there is now CRABBE. THEY who are young should not marry yet, those who are old should not marry at all, says Thales the philosopher. In his prudence and worldly wisdom, Penguin had observed the first clause of the apopthegm; but when his independent circumstances authorized him, as he thought, to follow his own fancy, he had neglected the last half of the position. Just as he was meditating a retirement from business, he was seized with a tedious malady, for which change of air was prescribed; and he accordingly engaged lodgings, at the distance of a few miles from Southampton, in the house of a widow named Jarvis, apparently a very respectable woman, who, with her daughter, promised to take all possible care of the invalid, and to make him quite as comfortable as if he were at home. The mother, an exceedingly plausible, but shrewd and artful woman of the world, no sooner learned the circumstances of her lodger, than she felt a deep interest in performing this promise, having promptly formed a hope that, by proper management, she might entrap him as a husband for her daughter. Laura, for such was the name of the latter, was a fine, showy-looking girl, somewhat more dashing in her style of dress than became her station, though by no means an unattractive figure, especially to a bachelor verging upon sixty. No sooner was she apprized of her mother's designs, than she entered into them with the utmost alacrity, and prosecuted them with a proportionate address. Rendering her appearance as alluring as possible, she found an excuse, in the invalid's state of health, for being perpetually about his person, preparing with her own hand his slops and broths, administering his medicaments, providing his little delicacies when he became convalescent, and omitting no opportunity of amusing his mind, while she contributed to alleviate his personal ailments. Penguin was neither ungrateful for her unremitting attentions, nor insensible to the influence of her personal charms; but as she was more than young enough to be his daughter, her appearance rather suggested to him the propriety of his choosing a wife with similar qualifications, but of a more appropriate age, than presented her to his mind as calculated to supply the desiderated helpmate in her own person. In fact, he had no idea that she would accept a husband so much older than herself, even were he bold enough to overlook the disparity of their years, and make her an offer of his hand; in which persuasion he prepared to leave the house, not, however, without warm expressions and liberal testimonies of his gratitude. Alarmed at these demonstrations of departure, Mrs. Jarvis proceeded to adopt such effectual mea sures for the attainment of her object, and was so artfully and effectually seconded by her daughter, that in the course of a few weeks Laura became Mrs. Penguin. In explanation of the young lady's anxiety to effect this incongruous union, it may be stated that she had, a year or two before this period, been so unfortunate as to commit a faux pas, which, by the mother's wary management, had been carefully hushed up at the moment; but as it was by no means impossible that the affair might transpire, an event which would not tend to increase the number of candidates for her hand, she deemed it highly advisable to get married with as little delay as possible. Mrs. Jarvis was the more anxious to see her settled, from her knowledge of Laura's light, unsteady character; and when to these weighty considerations were added a present settlement of two hundred pounds a-year, and the prospect of becoming a well provided widow, should she survive Penguin, of which there could be little doubt, disparity of years appeared so trivial an objection, as scarcely to deserve a moment's thought. In the daughter's estimation, indeed, the advanced age of her husband was rather an advantage, as bringing within nearer view that happy period when she might indemnify herself at the altar of love, for those sacrifices which she now made at the shrines of wealth and prudence. To judge by external manifestations, never was so watchful, so diligent, so anxious a wife. She took into her own hands the complete control of his household, the superintendence of his health, the direction of almost every action of his life, so that her love, for such her husband chose to call it, soon degenerated into an absolute tyranny, which she sometimes exercised in a way rather painful to his feelings, by displaying her authority in the presence of his friends and visitants. To reconcile himself and others to this obtrusive domination, he would candidly confess that her fondness became occasionally importunate and troublesome, but that knowing how she doated upon him, how deep and tender was her solicitude for his welfare, he must be the most ungrateful of men, in fact, little better than a brute, did he not humour her in these little, affectionate, though |