Abigail; and Blanche’s pet bullfinch, the darling of her very heart, makes an enormous chest, and whistles his reply in the opening notes of “Haste to the wedding!” breaking off abruptly in the middle of the second bar. Gingham is very busy, for she is putting Blanche’s “things to rights,” which means that she is looking over the young lady’s wardrobe with a view to discovering those colours and garments most becoming to her own rather bilious complexion, and losing no opportunity of acquainting herself with Blanche’s likes, dislikes, feelings, and disposition, by reading her books, opening her letters, and peeping into her album. Now, Gingham had been with Mrs. Kettering for many years, and was a most trustworthy person; so her mistress affirmed and thought. Certainly, with all her weaknesses and faults, she was devotedly attached to Miss Blanche; and it is our firm belief that she loved her young lady, in her heart of hearts, better than her perquisites, her tea, or even a certain Tom Blacke, whose dashing appearance and assured vulgarity had made no slight impression on her too susceptible feelings. “Every Jack has his Gill,” if he and she can only find each other out at the propitious moment; and although the Gill in question _owned_ to two-and-thirty, was by no means transparent in complexion, and had projecting teeth, and a saffron-coloured front, yet she was no exception to the beautiful law of nature, which provides for every variety of our species a mate of fitting degree.