wouldn't get married, May; I am sure that any man
would be only too glad to have you; but what I say is that these grand
matches that girls dream of aren't possible nowadays. Nice young men! I
dare say; and plenty of them, I know them; young scamps without a
shilling, who amuse themselves with a girl until they are tired of her,
and then, off they go. Now, then, let's count up the good matches that
are going in the county--'

At this moment the servant was heard at the door bringing in the tea.

'Oh! bother!' exclaimed Mrs. Gould, settling her dress hurriedly. The
interval was full of secret irritation; and the three women watched the
methodical butler place the urn on the table, turn up the lamp that was
burning low, and bring chairs forward from the farthest corners.

'On your side of the county,' said Mrs. Gould, as soon as the door was
closed, 'there is our brace of baronets, as they are called. But poor
Sir Richard--I am afraid he is a bad case--and yet he never took to
drink until he was five-and-thirty; and as for Sir Charles--of course
there are great advantages, he has a very fine property; but still many
girls might--and I can quite understand their not liking to marry him.'

'Why, Mrs. Gould, what is wrong with him?' Alice asked innocently.

'Don't you know?' said May, winking. 'Haven't you heard? But I forgot,
he isn't your side of the county. He's married already; at least, so
they say.'

'It is very sad, very sad, indeed,' murmured Mrs. Gould; 'he'd have been
a great match.'

'And to whom is he married?' said Alice, whose curiosity was awakened by
the air of mystery with which the baronet was surrounded.

'Well, he's not exactly married,' replied May, laughing; 'but he has a
large family.'

'May, I will not allow it; it is very wrong of you, indeed, to talk like
that--'

'Now, mother dear, don't get into a passion; where's the harm? The whole
country knows it; Violet was talking of it to me only the other day.
There isn't a man within a mile of us, so we needn't be on our P's and
Q's.'

'And who is the mother of all these children?' Alice asked.

'A country-woman with whom he lives,' said May. 'Just fancy marrying a
man with a little dirty crowd of illegitimate children running about the
stable-yard!'

'The usual thing in such cases is to emigrate them,' said Mrs. Gould
philosophically; and she again distended herself before the fire.

'Emigrate them!' cried May; 'if he emigrated them to