Elizabeth wrote about her. How old d'ye think she
is?"

"I know!" said Jemima. "At least, I heard her age spoken
about, amongst other things, when first she came. She will be
five-and-twenty this autumn."

"And Farquhar is forty, if he is a day. She's young, too, to have
such a boy as Leonard; younger-looking, or full as young-looking as
she is! I tell you what, Mimie, she looks younger than you. How old
are you? Three-and-twenty, ain't it?"

"Last March," replied Jemima.

"You'll have to make haste and pick up somebody, if you're losing
your good looks at this rate. Why, Jemima, I thought you had a good
chance of Farquhar a year or two ago. How come you to have lost him?
I'd far rather you'd had him than that proud, haughty Mrs Denbigh,
who flashes her great grey eyes upon me if ever I dare to pay her a
compliment. She ought to think it an honour that I take that much
notice of her. Besides, Farquhar is rich, and it's keeping the
business of the firm in one's own family; and if he marries Mrs
Denbigh she will be sure to be wanting Leonard in when he's of age,
and I won't have that. Have a try for Farquhar, Mimie! Ten to one
it's not too late. I wish I'd brought you a pink bonnet down. You go
about so dowdy--so careless of how you look."

"If Mr Farquhar has not liked me as I am," said Jemima, choking, "I
don't want to owe him to a pink bonnet."

"Nonsense! I don't like to have my sisters' governess stealing a
march on my sister. I tell you Farquhar is worth trying for. If
you'll wear the pink bonnet I'll give it you, and I'll back you
against Mrs Denbigh. I think you might have done something with
'our member,' as my father calls him, when you had him so long
in the house. But, altogether, I should like Farquhar best for a
brother-in-law. By the way, have you heard down here that Donne is
going to be married? I heard of it in town, just before I left, from
a man that was good authority. Some Sir Thomas Campbell's seventh
daughter: a girl without a penny; father ruined himself by gambling,
and obliged to live abroad. But Donne is not a man to care for any
obstacle, from all accounts, when once he has taken a fancy. It was
love at first sight, they say. I believe he did not know of her
existence a month ago."

"No! we have not heard of it," replied Jemima. "My father will like
to know; tell it him;" continued she, as she was leaving the room, to
be alone, in order to still her habitual agitation whenever she h