_Susie._--"Ah! well, my dear, make your mind easy, he is better, he has got over it." _Jennie._--"Heaven be praised! And yet--I know it's selfishness--but I should like to have him here with me." _Susie._--"But has nobody told you he is married?..." _Jennie._--"Married! I don't believe a word of it." _Susie._--"It is true enough, though. I took tea with his wife not more than a fortnight ago." _Jennie._--"Fancy the wretch! What a set the men are to be sure!... And what woman has been mad enough to tie herself to him? the old grumbler, old tyrant, old miser ... the...." _Susie._--"Hush, my love; remember where you are.... Besides, between ourselves, I don't believe he is over happy." _Jennie._--"Serve him right ... the idea ... at his age too.... Perhaps he thought he was going to be married for his good looks, the idiot!" _Susie._--"At his age! He calls himself fifty-five...." _Jennie._--"He tells falsehoods; he is sixty, and over.... Oh! if ever I come across him here!... I...." _Susie._--"He has married a very religious woman ... she makes him go to every service ... he is a pattern to all his townsmen." _Jennie._--"It just serves him right! but who is the woman?" _Susie._--"Sarah Robinson." _Jennie._--"What! the widow of Robinson, the chemist of High Street?" _Susie._--"Just so." _Jennie._--"And you say she is religious! Well well, she must have changed since my time, and no mistake. Of course, you know the stories that used to be told about her.... She was no better than she should be, my dear, that is certain ... and...." _Susie._--"Well, she is a model of piety now." _Jennie._--"Oh! enough of this subject. There, let us talk of something else.... Let me see, when was it you arrived here?" _Susie._--"Yesterday morning, at twenty past eight. Everything seems so strange to me ... this calm ... but what I can't get over is to see the negroes, the Chinese, the savages; what a number of them are here! ... those that our missionaries converted, I suppose. What a blessed work, our foreign missions! Only I fancy all those converts ought to have a place ... how shall I explain myself? ... marked out for them. To speak candidly, I quite expected to see our glorious nation treated with a great deal more consideration than it seems to be." _Jennie._--"Yes, isn't it strange? I can't understand it at all." _Susie._--"Would you believe it, I had to wait two mortal hours at the gate yesterday morning, and, when at last my turn came, Saint Peter never even got up to welcome me ... and pay me a compliment or two?... It would have been nothing but polite, I am sure; for, after all, where would Paradise be without us? Who is it that proclaims the glory of God at the four corners of the universe, I should like to know?"