add
that this satisfied me.

Miss Jillgall's generous confidence in my discretion was, I am afraid,
not rewarded as it ought to have been. I found her tiresome at first.

She spoke of an excellent friend (a lady), who had helped her, at
the time when she lost her little fortune, by raising a subscription
privately to pay the expenses of her return to England. Her friend's
name--not very attractive to English ears--was Mrs. Tenbruggen; they had
first become acquainted under interesting circumstances. Miss Jillgall
happened to mention that my father was her only living relative; and
it turned out that Mrs. Tenbruggen was familiar with his name, and
reverenced his fame as a preacher. When he had generously received his
poor helpless cousin under his own roof, Miss Jillgall's gratitude and
sense of duty impelled her to write and tell Mrs. Tenbruggen how happy
she was as a member of our family.

Let me confess that I began to listen more attentively when the
narrative reached this point.

"I drew a little picture of our domestic circle here," Miss Jillgall
said, describing her letter; "and I mentioned the mystery in which
Mr. Gracedieu conceals the ages of you two dear girls. Mrs.
Tenbruggen--shall we shorten her ugly name and call her Mrs. T.? Very
well--Mrs. T. is a remarkably clever woman, and I looked for interesting
results, if she would give her opinion of the mysterious circumstance
mentioned in my letter."

By this time, I was all eagerness to hear more.

"Has she written to you?" I asked.

Miss Jillgall looked at me affectionately, and took the reply out of her
pocket.

"Listen, Euneece; and you shall hear her own words. Thus she writes:

"'Your letter, dear Selina, especially interests me by what it says
about the _two_ Miss Gracedieus. '--Look, dear; she underlines the word
Two. Why, I can't explain. Can you? Ah, I thought not. Well, let us get
back to the letter. My accomplished friend continues in these terms:

"'I can understand the surprise which you have felt at the strange
course taken by their father, as a means of concealing the difference
which there must be in the ages of these young ladies. Many years since,
I happened to discover a romantic incident in the life of your popular
preacher, which he has his reasons, as I suspect, for keeping strictly
to himself. If I may venture on a bold guess, I should say that any
person who could discover which was the oldest of the two daughters,
would b