“Indeed, madam, they have spoke to me of little else for some months past, and their very last words----” “Why, that’s very well,” says she, “for I must think better of you than to imagine that after such sedulous care you, any more than my Charlotte, could fall a prey to the wiles of the designing creatures. Pray, miss, what do you think was my intention in presenting the gentlemen to you two young women to-day?” “Indeed, madam, I don’t know,” for what dark political meaning there could be in so natural an act, I could not imagine. “Why, then,” says Mrs Hamlin, “I desired to provide you both with agreeable cavaliers for the voyage, without the fear of falling in love on either side.” “Sure, madam, you’re very kind,” Miss Hamlin puts in. _Mrs Hamlin_. Don’t be pert, miss. I observed just now, Miss Freyne, that you was put out of countenance by a foolish remark of my nephew’s, which his sister very properly reproved. Such sensibility does you honour, but I would have you learn to take such sayings in good part, since, though it be true that a man of fine manners would not allude to the fact so freely, ’tis yet undeniable that both you and my niece are going to Bengall to be married, as my poor Henry said. _Sylvia_. Sure, madam, ’tis but the action of a woman of spirit to protest against such a view, and endeavour to discredit it? _Mrs H_. I see, miss, that, like other romancical young ladies, you cherish the notion that you would prefer to lead a single life. I don’t fancy you would remain long in that mind in Britain--since we en’t Papists, and if I may say so to your face, you are reasonable well-looking--but in India such a resolution could not hold for a single day. When you have seen, as I have, the numerous crowds of gentlemen in respectable, if not in affluent circumstances, that will hasten to the _Gott_[1.08] to see the European ladies disembark, and rush to hand you out of your _palanqueen_ and into church on Sunday, you will perceive that no woman could be so cruel as to keep so many worthy persons pining in suspense. I have known a young lady--and she not a creature of any figure--who was married, within two hours of her landing, to a gentleman she had never seen before. _Sylvia_. I hope, madam, you don’t anticipate such a fate for me?