nius for matrimony has made
half the fame of Nevis, for they make Bath House so agreeable a place
to run to from the fogs of London that more eligibles flock here every
year. There isn't a disinterested girl in Bath House unless it be Mary
Denbigh, who has two thousand a year, has been disappointed in love,
and is twenty-nine and six months." She turned sharply to Anne, and
demanded:

"Have you come here after a husband?"

"If you will ask my aunt I fancy she will reply in the affirmative,"
said Anne, mischievously.

Mrs. Nunn coloured, and the others looked somewhat taken aback.

"That was not a very lady-like speech," said Mrs. Nunn severely.
"Moreover," with great dignity, "I have found your society so
agreeable, my dear, that I hope to enjoy it for several years to
come."

Anne, quick in response, felt repentant and touched, but Lady
Constance remarked drily:

"Prepare yourself for the worst, my dear Emily. I'll wager you this
purse I'm netting that Miss Percy will have the first proposal of the
season. She may differ from the prevailing mode in young ladies, but
she was fashioned to be the mother of fine healthy children; and young
men, who are human and normal _au fond_, whatever their ridiculous
affectations, will not be long in responding, whether they know what
is the matter with them or not."

Anne blushed at this plain speaking, and Mrs. Nunn bridled. "I wish
you would remember that young girls----"

"You told me yourself that she was two-and-twenty. She ought to have
three babies by this time. It is a shocking age for an unmarried
female. You have not made up your mind to be an old maid, I suppose?"
she queried, pushing up her spectacles and dropping her netting. "If
so, I'll turn matchmaker myself. I should succeed far better than
Emily Nunn, for I have married off five nieces of my own. Now don't
say that you have. You look as if it were on the tip of your tongue.
All girls say it when there is no man in sight. I shall hate you if
you are not as little commonplace as you look."

Anne shrugged her shoulders and said nothing, while Lady Hunsdon
remarked with her peremptory smile (this was one of a well known set):
"We have wandered far from the subject of Mr. Warner. Not so far
either, for my son tells me, Miss Percy, that you have kindly
consented to meet him--to help us, in fact. I hope you have no
objections to bring forward, Emily. I am very much set upon this
matter of reclaiming the poet.