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her property. The days of grief and mourning being over for so good a brother, the widow commenced councilling her daughter to look somewhat "higher in life" & for a person of more property than "poor Stephen" in whom, now the widow could discover many defects & with whose alliance certain very disadvantageous circumstances might arise. F _ combatted like an honest loving girl her mother's views, but the mother was inexorable, & as she wanted a year or more of eighteen, she thought it prudent to, apparently submit. Stephen was broken-hearted, but his faithful girl assured him that sooner or later she wanted be his & his only, & that the addition to her prospects, only made her love him the more. The widow suggested several young men as "suitable" for her. A deep sigh a heaving bosom & downcast look was her only answer.

 F _ had just passed her eighteenth year & 

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