"Oh, yes, Miss; he's done her a sight o' good." "Ah! so he always does: but Ritson, if he should not be able to attend to her quite so closely as usual, just now, you will excuse it, when you hear how it is." "Lord, Miss! the wonder is that he has come at all, so ill as he has been hisself." "I don't mean that: you will soon see him very well now. He is going to be married, Ritson--" "What, is he? Well--" "To my cousin, Miss Ibbotson. He will be more at our house, you know, than anywhere else." And with a wink which was a very good miniature of her mother's Sophia passed on, leaving Ritson to bless Mr Hope and the pretty young lady. She cast a glance into the butcher's shop as she arrived opposite to it; and her heart leaped up when she saw Mrs James, the lawyer's wife, watching the weighing of a loin of veal. "You will excuse my interrupting you, Mrs James," said she, from the threshold of the shop: "but we are anxious to know whether Mr James thinks Mrs Enderby really altered of late. We saw him go in last week, and we heard it was to make an alteration in her will." "I often wonder how things get abroad," said Mrs James, "My husband makes such a particular point of never speaking of such affairs; and I am sure no one ever hears them from me." "I believe Mrs Enderby told mamma that about the will herself." "Well, that is as she pleases, of course," said Mrs James, smiling. "What is the weight with the kidney, Mr Jones?" "We should like so to know," resumed Sophia, "whether Mr James considers Mrs Enderby much altered of late." "I should think you would be better able to judge than he, Miss Grey; I believe you see her ten times to his once." "That is the very reason: we see her so often, that a gradual change would be less likely to strike us." "Mr Hope will give you satisfaction: he must be a better judge than any of us." "Oh, yes; but we cannot expect him to have eyes for any person but one, at present, you know." "Oh, so he is going to marry Deborah Giles, after all?" "Deborah Giles!" "Yes; was he not said to be engaged to her, some time ago?" "Deborah Giles! the boatman's daughter! I declare I never heard of such a place as this for gossip! Why, Deborah Giles can barely read and write; and she is beneath Mr Hope in every way. I do not believe he ever spoke to her in his life." "Oh, well; I do not pretend to know. I heard something about it. Eleven and threepence. Can you change a sovereign, Mr Jones? And, pray, send home the chops immediately." "It is my cousin, Miss Ibbotson, that Mr Hope is engaged to," said Sophia, unable to refrain from disclosures which she yet saw were not cared for:--"the beautiful Miss Ibbotson, you know." "Indeed: I am sure somebody said it was Deborah Giles. Then you think, Mr Jones, we may depend upon you for game when the season begins?" Mr Jones seemed more interested in the news than his customer; he wished Mr Hope all good luck with his pretty lady.