. You could not help but regret
it."

"I am not going to do it. But why should I regret it?"

"You know why, as well as I do. Such a girl would not be a good wife
for you. She would be a millstone round your neck."

Perhaps Mr. Tom thought she would be a pleasant millstone in those
circumstances; but he only remarked that he believed the lady in
question would be a good wife for whoever could get her.

"Well, not for you. You can have anybody you want to, Tom; and you may
just as well have money and family as well as beauty. It is a very bad
thing for a girl not to have family. That deprives her husband of a
great advantage; and besides, saddles upon him often most undesirable
burdens in the shape of brothers and sisters, and nephews perhaps. What
is this girl's family, do you know?"

"Respectable," said Tom, "or she would not be a cousin of Mrs. Wishart.
And that makes her a cousin of Edward's wife."

"My dear, everybody has cousins; and people are not responsible for
them. She is a poor relation, whom Mrs. Wishart has here for the
purpose of befriending her; she'll marry her off if she can; and you
would do as well as another. Indeed you would do splendidly; but the
advantage would be all on their side; and that is what I do not wish
for you."

Tom was silent. His sister remarked that Mrs. Wishart really was not a
match-maker.

"No more than everybody is; it is no harm; of course she would like to
see this little girl well married. Is she educated? Accomplished?"

"Tom can tell," said the daughter. "I never saw her do anything. What
can she do, Tom?"

"_Do?_" said Tom, flaring up. "What do you mean?"

"Can she play?"

"No, and I am glad she can't. If ever there was a bore, it is the
performances of you young ladies on the piano. It's just to show what
you can do. Who cares, except the music master?"

"Does she sing?"

"I don't know!"

"Can she speak French?"

"French!" cried Tom. "Who wants her to speak French? We talk English in
this country."

"But, my dear boy, we often have to use French or some other language,
there are so many foreigners that one meets in society. And a lady
_must_ know French at least. Does she know anything?"

"I don't know," said Tom. "I have no doubt she does. I haven't tried
her. How much, do you suppose, do girls in general know? girls with
ever so much money and family? And who cares how much they know? One
does not seek a lady's society for the purpose of being i