stories and jokes after dinner were received with a gentle
'impossible!' which meant either 'really,' or 'indeed,' or anything
else it might pass for, Uncle Elliston struck the table violently with
his clenched hand, exclaiming in a passion: 'Impossible?
madam--impossible? Do you mean to give me the lie? I tell you, the
anecdote I have just related is perfectly possible, and, moreover,
perfectly true. What do you mean by impossible? I hate impossibles.
Nothing is impossible! Do you mean to insult me, madam--heigh?'

'Impossible, dear uncle--impossible!' meekly ejaculated the gentle
fair, affrighted at such an unusual display of excitement; and it was
fortunate that Major George called off her uncle's attention from poor
Miss Constantia's unconscious delinquency.

Major George was an Indian crony of Uncle Elliston's; considerably
younger, however, than the latter, and, as the spinsters remarked
sententiously, only sallow enough to be interesting, and only old
enough to be sedate! His purse was amply filled, and Major George was
on the look-out for a wife; but being most painfully shy and
sensitive, it seemed rather a doubtful case if he would succeed in his
aspirings. With the nabob, Major George was an immense favourite; but
except that they had hunted tigers together, there seemed no adequate
reason for so strong a preference--the taciturnity of the one being as
remarkable as the communicativeness of the other. Mr Elliston called
George a 'good fellow,' and slapped his shoulder approvingly; and
introduced him to Miss Constantia with sly and peculiar
_empressement_. Major George's visit was prolonged, and Miss
Constantia's visit was prolonged far beyond the period allotted to her
sisters; and Uncle Elliston gradually ceased to rave at 'Impossible!'
But a terrible climax approached, and how it came about no one ever