“Therese! I daresay it was shockingly dear, then, because Cornelia once said to me—so spiteful of her!—that it was to be hoped George might not be ruined by Mary’s extravagance, and that she couldn’t afford to have her dresses made by Therese.”

“Could, but won’t,” said Abby, sipping her tea. “How happy James must be to have a wife who is as big a nip-farthing as he is himself!”

“Oh, Abby, how can you? Remember, he is your brother!”

“I do, and never cease to regret it!” retorted Abby. “Now, don’t, I beg of you, recite me a catalogue of his virtues, for they don’t render him any more lovable—less, in fact! Besides, he’s an incorrigible busy-head, and I’m quite out of charity with him.”

Selina had been uttering soft clucking sounds of protest, but they ceased at this, and she demanded quite sharply: “Has James written to you too?”

“Written to me! He actually came up to London to read me one of his pompous lectures! My dear, what have you been doing here? Who is this ramshackle youth who has been making up to Fanny?”

“No such thing!” declared Selina, her colour much heightened. “It was a case of love at first sight—and a very pretty-behaved young man! Only think of his running out of the Pump Room, with no umbrella, to procure a chair for me, and becoming drenched, because you know what it is in Bath when it suddenly comes on to rain, there is never a chair or a hackney to be had, and I was persuaded he would take a chill, which would settle on his lungs, but he made nothing of it—so very obliging! And he had not then exchanged one word with Fanny, because she wasn’t with me, and although I remembered that I had seen him in the Upper Rooms two—no, three—days before, he did not, and Fanny was with me on that occasion, so if you are thinking that he got the chair for me because he wished to become acquainted with her you are quite mistaken, Abby! If that had been his object he would have desired Mr King to have introduced him to us, at the Upper Rooms. And,”she concluded, with the air of one delivering a clincher: “he is not a youth! I daresay he is as old as you are, and very likely older!”