without compensation of any kind. Honest Kuys and his family would thus have been in danger of suffering from actual want, were it not for a small interest in property possessed by the wife; upon which scanty provision they resolved to retire. In personal appearance the good man was comparatively fair, florid, and well-conditioned; although, since the disastrous reverse in his circumstances, he had become rather more careless than usual in the particular of dress.
The Señora, his wife, was also a very exemplary individual: she had been a dutiful helpmate to poor Kuys; atoning as far as in her lay for his deficiencies and ever making the best of things. She had had no power, however, to prevent the final catastrophe in her husband's fortunes; and the affair had, upon the whole, the effect of disgusting her with the world, and of reconciling her to a life of seclusion with her family: but she was the gentlest of misanthropes, and much beloved by her husband and children.
Their olive branches had, as yet, given them but little occasion for uneasiness. The eldest son, Rual, was lively, good-hearted, and intelligent; and had hitherto assisted his father
