ernoon tea and a little gossip with his wife and his own sister,
Mrs. Forrester, from London. "Who do you think is going to be
married, and to whom?" said Mrs. Thorne. "I'll give you all three
guesses apiece, and bet you a pair of gloves all round that you don't
make it out."

"Not Miss Altifiorla?" said her mother.

"That's only one. A marriage requires two personages. I still hold
good by my bet."

"Miss Altifiorla going to be married!" said the Dean. "Who is the
unfortunate victim?"

"Papa, do not be ill-natured. Why should not Miss Altifiorla be
married as well as another?"

"In the first place, my dear," said Mrs. Forrester, "because I
understand that the lady has always expressed herself as being in
favour of a single life."

"I go beyond that," said the Dean, "and maintain that any single life
would be preferable to a marriage with Miss Altifiorla."

"Considering that she is my friend, papa, I think that you are very
unkind."

"But who is to be the gentleman?" asked her mother.

"Ah! there's the question! Why don't you guess?" Then Mrs. Dean
did name three or four of the most unpromising unmarried elderly
gentlemen in Exeter, and the Dean, in that spirit of satire against
his own order which is common among clergymen, suggested an old
widowed Minor Canon, who was in the habit of chanting the Litany.
"You are none of you near the mark. You ought to come nearer home."

"Nearer home?" said Mrs. Dean with a look of discomfort in her face.

"Yes, mamma. A great deal nearer home."

"It can't be your Uncle Septimus," said the Dean. Now Uncle Septimus
was the unmarried brother of old Mr. Thorne, and was regarded by
all the Thorne family as a perfect model of an unselfish, fine old
lovable gentleman.

"Good gracious, no!" said Mrs. Thorne. "What a horrible idea!
Fancy Uncle Septimus doomed to pass his life in company with Miss
Altifiorla! The happy man in question is--Sir Francis Geraldine."

"No!" said Mrs. Hippesley, jumping from her seat.

"It is impossible," said the Dean, who, though he greatly disliked
his brother-in-law, still thought something of the family into which
he had married, and thoroughly despised Miss Altifiorla. "I do not
think that Sir Francis could be so silly as that."

"It cannot be," said Mrs. Hippesley.

"What has the young lady done to make it impossible?" asked Mrs.
Forrester.

"Nothing on earth," said Mrs. Thorne. "She is my special friend and
is in my opinion a great