"Really, Mrs. Langton," I observed impatiently, "you forget the gentleman you allude to could be my father, and is, after all, a middle-aged man." "A middle-aged man!" echoed Mrs. Langton, looking confounded. "You are hard to please, Miss Burns; a most elegant and accomplished gentleman--a middle-aged man!" "If he were an angel, he is not the less near forty." "Still talking of Captain Craik," rather uneasily observed Mrs. Brand, joining us, "Edith, dear, are you not afraid of the tooth-ache?" "No, Bertha, dear." "But I am for you. You must come in." Mrs. Brand slipped her arm within that of her friend, and made her re- enter the drawing-room. But something or some one called her away, for in a few minutes, Mrs. Langton was again by me. She came on me suddenly, before I could efface the trace of recent tears. The evening was light and clear. She looked at me and said: "I could have spared you this, Miss Burns. Mr. Thornton--" "Indeed, Ma'am," I interrupted, "I am not thinking of Mr. Thornton; but I fear Mr. O'Reilly is vexed with me: that is the truth." I thought this would rid me of her tiresome jealousy, but it did not. "Poor child!" she said compassionately, "I see you know nothing. Perhaps it is scarcely right to betray Bertha to you; but can I help also feeling for you? Do you know the play of Shakespeare entitled 'Much Ado about Nothing'?" "Yes, Ma'am, I know it." "Do you remember the ingenious manner in which two of the characters are made to fall in love with one another? Benedick thinks Beatrice is dying for him, and Beatrice thinks the same thing of him." "That was vanity, Ma'am, not love." "Ay, but vanity is a potent passion, and 'Much Ado about Nothing' is a play still daily enacted on the scene of the world." I heard her with some impatience; I thought her discourse resembled the play of which it treated. She saw plain speech alone would make me comprehend her meaning. "Our dear Bertha," she sighed, "has quite a passion for match-making. For instance, she will teaze me about Captain Craik, and says he is mad about me. I don't mind it, provided she does not say the same thing to him." "Oh!" I replied, quite startled, "that would be too bad." "So it would; but I fear it. Captain Craik has been very peculiar of late." I felt uncomfortable. It was not to end with Captain Craik we had travelled over the slow ground of this ambiguous discourse. "Now do you know." resumed Mrs. Langton, "I cannot help fancying that Bertha has been indulging in the same little pastime with you and her brother." "Not with me," I said, eagerly; "she never even hinted it." "You are slow at taking hints," replied Mrs. Langton with a sceptical smile. "But why should she think of me?" I asked, incredulously; "I am not a beauty," I added, looking at her, "I have no wealth--no position. Why should she wish to marry me to her brother?" "To make a good sister-in-law," answered Mrs. Langton, quietly.