"And you would open the mouth of the dumb, and stop the mouth of the
foolish?"

"Exactly."

"Who are they? And first, to proceed by due climax, who is he whose
mouth is to be closed?"

"A baronet of these parts, Sir Frederic Beaumantle. A vain, vain, vain
man. It would be a waste of good words to spend another epithet upon
him, for he is all vanity. All his virtues, all his vices, all his
actions, good, bad, and indifferent, are nothing but vanity. He praises
you from vanity, abuses you from vanity, loves and hates you from
vanity. He is vain of his person, of his wealth, of his birth, of his
title, vain of all he has, and all he has not. He sets so great a value
on his innumerable and superlative good qualities, that he really has
not been able (until he met with your humble servant) to find any
individual of our sex on whom he could, conscientiously, bestow so great
a treasure as his own right hand must inevitably give away. This has
been the only reason--he tells me so himself--why he has remained so
long unmarried; for he has rounded the arch, and is going down the
bridge. To take his own account of this delicate matter, he is
fluctuating, with an uneasy motion, to and fro, between forty and
forty-five."

"Old enough, I doubt not, to be your father. How can he venture on such
a frolicsome young thing as you?"

"I asked him that question myself one day; and he told me, with a most
complacent smile, that I should be the perfect compendium of
matrimony--he should have wife and child in one."

"The old coxcomb! And yet there was a sort of providence in that.--Now,
who is he whose mouth is to be opened?"

"Oh--he!--can't you guess?"

"Your cousin Reginald, as you used to call him--though cousin I believe
he is none--this learned wrangler?"

"The same. Trust me, he loves me to the bottom of his heart; but because
his little cousin is a great heiress, he thinks it fit to be very proud,
and gives me over--many thanks to him--to this rich baronet. But here he
comes."

As she spoke, Darcy and Griffith entered the room.

"We have been canvassing," said Emily, after the usual forms of
introduction had been gone through, "the merits of our friend, Sir
Frederic Beaumantle. By the way, Reginald, he dines here to-day, and so
will another gentleman, whom I shall be happy to introduce to you,
Captain Garland, an esteemed friend of mine and Miss Danvers'."

"Sir Frederic seems," said Griffith, by way merely of taki