would, in any degree, justify the devotion he displayed. In the first
place, Mrs. Wood had the advantage of her husband in point of years,
being on the sunny side of forty,--a period pronounced by competent
judges to be the most fascinating, and, at the same time, most critical
epoch of woman's existence,--whereas, he was on the shady side of
fifty,--a term of life not generally conceived to have any special
recommendation in female eyes. In the next place, she really had some
pretensions to beauty. Accounted extremely pretty in her youth, her
features and person expanded as she grew older, without much detriment
to their original comeliness. Hers was beauty on a large scale no doubt;
but it was beauty, nevertheless: and the carpenter thought her eyes as
bright, her complexion as blooming, and her figure (if a little more
buxom) quite as captivating as when he led her to the altar some twenty
years ago.

On the present occasion, in anticipation of Mr. Kneebone's visit, Mrs.
Wood was dressed with more than ordinary care, and in more than ordinary
finery. A dove-coloured kincob gown, embroidered with large trees, and
made very low in front, displayed to the greatest possible advantage,
the rounded proportions of her figure; while a high-heeled, red-leather
shoe did not detract from the symmetry of a very neat ankle, and a very
small foot. A stomacher, fastened by imitation-diamond buckles, girded
that part of her person, which should have been a waist; a coral
necklace encircled her throat, and a few black patches, or mouches, as
they were termed, served as a foil to the bloom of her cheek and chin.
Upon a table, where they had been hastily deposited, on the intelligence
of Darrell's accident, lay a pair of pink kid gloves, bordered with
lace, and an enormous fan; the latter, when opened, represented the
metamorphosis and death of Actæon. From her stomacher, to which it was
attached by a multitude of glittering steel chains, depended an immense