readiness: "for," added she, "Mr. O'Neill has engaged me to open the
ball, in case Phoebe does not go: but I suppose she will cheer up and go,
as she has a pair of Limerick gloves as well as the rest of us."

There was a silence for some minutes after Jenny's departure, which was
broken by Phoebe, who told her mother that, early in the morning, a note
had been brought to her, which she had returned unopened; because she
knew, from the hand-writing of the direction, that it came from Mr.
O'Neill.

We must observe that Phoebe had already told her mother of her meeting
with this gentleman at the poor widow's, and of all that had passed
between them afterwards. This openness, on her part, had softened the
heart of Mrs. Hill; who was really inclined to be good-natured, provided
people would allow that she had more penetration than any one else in
Hereford. She was moreover a good deal piqued and alarmed by the idea
that the perfumer's daughter might rival and outshine her own. Whilst
she had thought herself sure of Mr. O'Neill's attachment to Phoebe, she
had looked higher; especially as she was persuaded, by the perfumer's
lady, to think that an Irishman could not be a bad match: but now she
began to suspect that the perfumer's lady had changed her opinion of
Irishmen, since she did not object to her own Jenny's leading up the
ball at Mr. O'Neill's.

All these thoughts passed rapidly in the mother's mind; and, with her
fear of losing an admirer for her Phoebe, the value of that admirer
suddenly rose in her estimation. Thus, at an auction, if a lot is going
to be knocked down to a lady, who is the only person that has bid for
it, even she feels discontented, and despises that which nobody covets;
but if, as the hammer is falling, many voices answer to the question,