"Mr. Thorn!" said Mr. Carleton.

"Yes," said Mrs. Evelyn, in an indulgent tone — "he was very
attentive to her last winter when she was with us, but she
went away before anything was decided. I don't think he has
forgotten her."

"I shouldn't think anybody could forget her," said Edith.

"I am confident he would be here at this moment," said
Constance, "if he wasn't in London."

"But what is 'all mamma's doing,' Constance?" inquired her
sister.

"The destruction of the peace of the whole family of Thorns; I
shouldn't sleep sound in my bed if I were she, with such a
reflection. I look forward to heart-rending scenes, with a
very disturbed state of mind."

"But what have I done, my child?" said Mrs. Evelyn.

"Didn't you introduce your favourite, Mr. Olmney, to Miss
Ringgan, last summer? I don't know" — her native delicacy
shrunk from making any disclosures, and, of course, the tongue
of friendship is silent — "but they were out ages yesterday
while I was waiting for her, and their parting at the gate was
— I feel myself unequal to the task of describing it," said
Constance, ecstatically; "and she was in the most elevated
tone of mind during our whole interview afterwards, and took