llude to any walk
or ride she ever took with a single man. I set her down, Mrs. Abbott,
as unqualifiedly artful!"

"That you may with certainty, sir, for there is no more sure sign
that a young woman is all the while thinking of the beaux, than her
never mentioning them."

"That I believe to be human nature; no ingenuous person ever thinks
much of the particular subject of conversation. What is your opinion,
Mrs. Abbott, of the contemplated match at the Wigwam?"

"Match!" exclaimed Mrs. Abbott.--"What, already! It is the most
indecent thing I ever heard of! Why, Mr. Dodge, the family has not
been home a fortnight, and to think so soon of getting married! It is
quite as bad as a widower's marrying within the month."

Mrs. Abbott made a distinction, habitually, between the cases of
widowers and widows, as the first, she maintained, might get married
whenever they pleased, and the latter only when they got offers; and
she felt just that sort of horror of a man's thinking of marrying too
soon after the death of his wife, as might be expected in one who
actually thought of a second husband before the first was dead.

"Why, yes," returned Steadfast, "it is a little premature, perhaps,
though they have been long acquainted. Still, as you say, it would be
more decent to wait and see what may turn up in a country, that, to
them, may be said to be a foreign land."

"But, who are the parties, Mr. Dodge."

"Miss Eve Effingham, and Mr. John Effingham"

"Mr. John Effingham!" exclaimed the lady, who had lent her name to a
neighbour, aghast, for this was knocking one of her own day-dreams in
the head, "well this is too much! But he shall not marry her, sir;
the law will prevent it, and we live in a country of laws. A man
cannot marry his own niece."

"It is excessively improper, and ought to be put a stop to. And yet
these Effinghams do very much as they please."

"I am very sorry to hear that; they are extremely disagreeable," said
Mrs. Abbott, with a look of eager inquiry, as if afraid the answer
might be in the negative.

"As much so as possible; they have hardly a way that you would like,
my dear ma'am; and are as close-mouthed as if they were afraid of
committing themselves."

"Desperate bad news-carriers, I am told, Mr. Dodge. There is Dorindy
(Dorinda) Mudge, who was employed there by Eve and Grace one day; she
tells me she tried all she could to get them to talk, by speaking of
the most common things; things tha