'Girls will be girls,' said Merton; 'she wants society.'

'Want must be her master then,' said Mrs. Nicholson stolidly.

'But about the man of her choice, have you anything against him?'

'No, but nothing _for_ him: I never even saw him.'

'Then where did Miss Monypenny make his acquaintance?'

'Well, like a fool, I let her go to pass Christmas with some distant
cousins of my own, who should have known better. They stupidly took her
to a dance, at Tutbury, and there she met him: just that once.'

'And they became engaged on so short an acquaintance?'

'Not exactly that. She was not engaged when she came home, and did not
seem to mean to be. She did talk of him a lot. He had got round her
finely: told her that he was going out to the war, and that they were
sister spirits. He had dreamed of meeting her, he said, and that was why
he came to the ball, for he did not dance. He said he believed they had
met in a state of pre--something; meaning, if you understand me, before
they were born, which could not be the case: she not being a twin, still
less _his_ twin.'

'That would be the only way of accounting for it, certainly,' said
Merton. 'But what followed? Did they correspond?'

'He wrote to her, but she showed me the letter, and put it in the fire