“And because you unintentionally occasioned some sorrow, now happily over, to some people, you would atone for the fault by adding one more to the list of victims, and making me miserable.  Bad logic, Lina, and worse religion.”

Jacquelina did not know—­she could not decide—­after so many grave errors, she was afraid to trust herself.  The matter was then referred—­of all men in the world—­to the commodore, who graciously replied, that they might go to the demon for him.  But as Cloudy and Lina had no especial business with his Satanic Majesty they declined to avail themselves of the permission, and consulted Mrs. Waugh, whose deep, mellow laugh preceded her answer, when she said: 

“Take heart, Lapwing! take heart, and all the happiness you can possibly get!  I have lived a long time, and seen a great many people, good and bad, and though I have sometimes met people who were not so happy as they merited—­yet I never have seen any one happier than they deserved to be! and that they cannot be so, seems to be a law of nature that ought to reconcile us very much to the apparent flourishing of the wicked.”

But Mrs. L’Oiseau warned her daughter not to trust to “Aunty,” who was so good-natured, and although such a misguided woman, that if she had her will she would do away with all punishment—­yes, even with Satan and purgatory!  But Jacquelina had much less confidence in Mrs. L’Oiseau than in Mrs. Waugh; and so she told Cloudy, who thought that he had waited already quite long enough, to wait until Marian and Thurston came home, and if they thought it would be right for her to be happy—­why—­then—­maybe—­she might be!  But the matter must be referred to them.

And now it was referred to them, by the sorely tried Cloudy.  And they gave Jacquelina leave to be “happy.”  And she was happy!  And as for Cloudy, poor, constant fellow! he was so overjoyed that he declared he would petition the Legislature to change his name as no longer appropriate, for though his morning had been cloudy enough, his day was going to be a very bright one!

When Mrs. L’Oiseau heard of this engagement, she crossed herself, and told her beads, and vowed that the world was growing so wicked that she could no longer live in it.  And she commenced preparations to retire to a convent, to which in fact she soon after went, and where in strict truth, she was likely to be much happier than her nature would permit her to be elsewhere.

Cloudy and Lina were very quietly married, and took up their abode at the pleasant farmhouse of Locust Hill, which was repaired and refurnished for their reception.  But if the leopard cannot change his spots, nor the Ethiope his skin—­neither can the fairy permanently change her nature; for no sooner was Jacko’s happiness secured, than the elfish spirit, the lightest part of her nature, effervesced to the top—­for the torment of Cloudy.  Jacko and Cloudy, even, had one quarrel—­it was upon the first occasion after their marriage, of