“How do you _do_? I have not seen you for ages! I know it’s my business to call, as I came up last; but, really I have so many engagements, and such tribes of visitors----” “Oh, pray don’t apologize!” cried Mrs. Brande, reddening; “I’d quite forgotten--I really thought you had called!” (May Sara Brande be forgiven for this terrible falsehood.) It was now Mrs. Langrishe’s turn to administer a little nip. “Of course you are going to dine at the Maitland-Perrys’ next week?” (well knowing that she had not been invited). “Every one who is _anybody_ is to be there. There are not many up yet, it is so early; but it will be uncommonly smart--as far as it goes--and given for the baronet!” “No, I am not going, I have not been asked,” rejoined Mrs. Brande with a gulp. She generally spoke the truth, however much against the grain. “Not asked! how very odd. Well,” with a soothing smile, “I dare say they will have you at their _next_. I hear that we are to expect quite a gay season.” “And I was told that there will be no men.” “Really! That won’t affect you much, as you don’t ride, or dance, or go to picnics; but it is sad news for poor me, for I am expecting a niece up from Calcutta, and I hope the place will be lively.” “But I _do_ mind, Mrs. Langrishe, just as much as you do,” retorted the other, with a triumphant toss of her head. “Perhaps you may not be aware that I am expecting a niece, too?” (How could Mrs. Langrishe possibly divine what the good lady herself had only known within the last few hours?) “Yours is from Calcutta, but mine is all the way from England!” And her glance inferred that the direct Europe importation was a very superior class of consignment. Then she added, “Other people has nieces too, you see!” And with a magnificent bow, she flounced down the steps, bundled into her rickshaw, and was whirled away. Mrs. Langrishe stood watching the four blue and yellow jampannis, swiftly vanishing in a cloud of dust, with a smile of malicious amusement. “Other people has nieces too, you see!” turning to her companions with admirable mimicry. “She is not to be outdone. What fun it is! Cannot you fancy what she will be like--Mrs. Brande’s niece, all the way from England? If not, I can inform you. She will have hair the colour of barley-sugar, clothes the colours of the rainbow, and not an ‘h’!” CHAPTER IV. THE THREE YOUNG MAIDS OF HOYLE. It was true that Mrs. Gordon and her daughters resided in a dull, out-of-the-way part of the world; but they could not help themselves. They lived at Hoyle, in the first instance, because it was cheap; and, in the second place, because living at Hoyle had now become second nature to Mrs. Gordon, and nothing short of a fire or an earthquake could remove her.