routine of everyday life that had characterized the last year was
totally changed.

The singular coincidence of the meeting between Miss Huntington and her
rejected lover, Captain Bramble, under such singular circumstances, led
him once more to press this suit, and now, as she regarded him largely
in the light of a protector, the widow quite approved of his intimacy,
and indeed, as far as propriety would permit, seconded his suit with her
daughter. When in India, she had looked most favorably upon Captain
Bramble's intimacy with her child, where there were accessory
circumstances to further her claims; but now she soon told her daughter
in private, that Captain Bramble was a match fit and proper in all
respects for such as she was.

"But, mother--"

"Well, my child?"

"Suppose, for instance, that I do not like Captain Bramble, then is he a
fitting match for me?"

"Not like him, my child?"

"Yes, mother, not like him."

"Why, is he not gentlemanly?"

"Yes."

"And of good family?"