He laughed heartily, and hugged the slender girl back. "I certainly hope it will be just as exciting for you as you anticipate, Sirena. And, I hope you will find an excellent husband of good family, and better income to take care of you."

"Will he love me, Gussie?" she asked him anxiously.

"How can he not?" her brother replied. "You are beautiful, Sirena, and sweet-natured. You excel at all the feminine skills, and you are virtuous. No man could ask for more in a wife, little sister."

"But you must not be so trusting of the other girls in London as you are at home," Charlotte interjected. "Remember, they are all on the marriage hunt, Sirena, and will not be charitable toward others if it means they might lose a particularly desirable gentleman."

"That is excellent advice," Lady Abbott noted, surprised by her daughter-in-law's sudden generosity. Then she realized that Charlotte would be far happier having Sirena married and out of the house.

"You make it sound like warfare," the trusting Sirena said.

"It is," Charlotte replied. "You cannot let down your vigil until you are well and truly married. I knew a girl in my season who became engaged to a most desirable gentleman, only to have him turn about and elope to Gretna Green with another. She was ruined, of course, and has not showed her face in London since. She has little chance now of making a successful match."

"Poor thing," Sirena said sympathetically.

"If you were not going with Miss Morgan I should truly fear for you, Sirena," Charlotte responded impatiently. "At least your cousin has good common sense."

Again Lady Abbott was surprised. "I thought you did not like Allegra Morgan," she said to her daughter-in-law.

"I neither like her nor dislike her," was the lofty reply.

Lord Morgan's packet was a brief missive asking that they depart in a week's time.