With the engagement of Rupert Forbes and Anna Talbot, started up a host of scruples and objections among the friends of the parties—not only manifested in the ominous shakings of very wise heads upon several very respectable shoulders, in prophetic winks and upturned eyes—but also found vent in speeches most voluble and fault-finding.

Rupert Forbes was a young physician in moderate circumstances, yet in good practice, established in a pleasant country village, some two hundred miles from the metropolis. Anna Talbot, the youngest of the four unmarried daughters of a wealthy citizen; a pet, a beauty, and a belle, who had been educated by a weak, fashionable mother to consider all labor as humiliating, and to whom the idea of waiting upon one’s self had never broken through the accustomed demands upon man-servants and maid-servants, who from her cradle had stood ready at her elbow, so that there seemed to be after all some ground upon which the discontent of friends might justifiably rest.

“To think of Anna’s throwing herself away upon a country physician, after all the expense we have lavished upon her dress and education—it is absolutely ungrateful!” said Mrs. Talbot, stooping to caress a little lap-dog reposing on the soft cushion at her feet.

“To give up the opera and the theatre for the psalm-singing of a country church—horrible!” exclaimed Belinda, humming the last new air.

“So much for mama’s bringing Miss Anna out at eighteen, just to show her pretty face, instead of waiting, as was our right!” whispered Ada to Charlotte. “Had she kept her back a little longer, we might have stood some chance.”

“We!” cried Charlotte, contemptuously. “I thank you, I am in no such haste to be married—do you think I would stoop so low for a husband! For my part I am glad Anna will be punished for all her airs—she was always vain of her beauty—see how long it will last! If she has been such a simpleton as to snap up the first gudgeon her beauty baited, why, let her take the consequences!”

“To be forever inhaling the smell of pill-boxes—pah!” said Ada.

“Instead of a heavenly serenade stealing upon one’s blissful dreams—to be roused with, ‘Ma’am, the doctor’s wanted—Mrs. Fidget’s baby is cutting a tooth,’ or ‘Deacon Lumpkin has cracked his skull!’” added Belinda.

“And then such a host of low, vulgar relations—in conscience I can never visit her!” quoth Charlotte.

“Well, well, girls, I’m not sure after all but Anna has done wisely,” said Mr. Talbot. “Forbes is a fine young fellow, and will make her a good husband. Poor thing! she will have many hardships, I don’t doubt—on that account only, I wish her affections had been given to some one better able to support her in the style to which she has been accustomed.”

“I consider it, Mr. Talbot, a perfect sacrifice of her life!” said his good lady.

Such were a few of the remarks on the lady’s side, while on the part of the gentleman was heard:

“How foolish to marry a city girl! A profitable wife she’ll make, to be sure!” cried one.

“Why couldn’t he have married one of his own folks, I should like to know!” said a second.

“Well, one thing is pretty certain; Rupert Forbes never will be beforehand—he has got to be poor enough all his days, and it is a pity, for he is a clever lad!” exclaimed a third.

“And I warrant she will hold her head high enough above her neighbors,” chimed in a fourth.

“Pride must have a fall—that’s one comfort”—added another, “and I guess it wont be long first, either!”

In addition to which charitable speeches, Rupert received many long lectures, and many kind letters, warning him against the fatal step he had so unwisely determined upon.

Opposition is often suicidal of itself, by bringing about the very event it most deprecates. In the present case, certainly, it did not retard the anticipated nuptials, for upon a certain bright morning in May, Rupert bore off his lovely young bride from her gay, fashionable home to his own quiet little nook in the country.

When Anna exchanged her magnificent satin and blonde for a beautiful traveling dress, had any one demanded what were her ideas of the new life she was now entering upon, she would have discoursed most eloquently upon a cottage ornÉe, buried amid honeysuckles and roses, where, on the banks of a beautiful stream, beneath the shadow of some wide-spreading tree, she could recline and listen to the warbling of the birds, or, more delightful still, to the music of Rupert’s voice, as he chanted in her ear some romantic legend of true love—from this charming repose to be aroused only by a summons from some blooming Hebe, presiding over the less fanciful arrangements of the cottage, to banquet, like the birds, upon berries and flowers!

Had the same inquiry been made of Rupert, as he looked with pride and love upon the young creature at his side, he would have traced a scene of calm domestic enjoyment, over which his lovely Anna was enthroned both arbitress and queen. To grace his home all her accomplishments were to be united with her native purity and goodness—her good sense was to guide, her approbation inspire his future career, and her sympathy alleviate all the “ills which flesh is heir to!”

This was certainly expecting a great deal of a fashionable young beauty, whose life might be summed up in the simple word—pleasure; and whose ideas of country life were gathered from very romantic novels, or perhaps a season at Saratoga! But then Rupert was very much in love—walking blindfolded, as it were, into the snares of Cupid!

One thing certainly the fair young bride brought to the cottage, along with her accomplishments—viz., a large trunk, filled with the most beautiful and tasteful dresses which fashion could invent—laces, handkerchiefs of gossamer texture, gloves the most delicate, fairy slippers, brooches, bracelets, rings, shawls, mantles, not omitting a twenty dollar hat, with bridal veil of corresponding value. Such was the trousseau of the young physician’s wife!

Anna herself had no idea that such costly and fanciful articles were not perfectly proper for her new sphere, and if her mother thought otherwise, as most probably she did, her desire to impress the “country people” with a sense of her daughter’s importance, and of the great condescension it must have been on her part to marry a country doctor, overcame her better judgment.

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