Greenwich Fair, ma'am."

"If the match is broken suddenly off," the widow interposed, "I don't
know what may be the consequence. I know Arthur's ardent temper, the
intensity of his affections, the agony of his pleasures and
disappointments, and I tremble at this one if it must be. Indeed, indeed,
it must not come on him too suddenly."

"My dear madam," the Major said, with an air of the deepest commiseration
"I've no doubt Arthur will have to suffer confoundedly before he gets
over the little disappointment. But is he, think you, the only person who
has been so rendered miserable?"

"No, indeed," said Helen, holding down her eyes. She was thinking of her
own case, and was at that moment seventeen again--and most miserable.

"I, myself," whispered her brother-in-law, "have undergone a
disappointment in early life. A young woman with fifteen thousand
pounds, niece to an Earl--most accomplished creature--a third of her
money would have run up my promotion in no time, and I should have been
a lieutenant--colonel at thirty: but it might not be. I was but a
penniless lieutenant: her parents interfered: and I embarked for India,
where I had the honour of being secretary to Lord Buckley, when
commander-in-Chief without her. What happened? We returned our letters,
sent back our locks of hair (the Major here passed his fingers through
his wig), we suffered--but we recovered. She is now a baronet's wife with
thirteen grown-up children; altered, it is true, in person; but her
daughters remind me of what she was, and the third is to be presented
early next week."