The girl’s manner was so modest and genuine, and she confessed her attachment for the young man with so much artlessness that old Sir Richard Warbeck was strongly prepossessed in her favour, and determined to do all in his power to reconcile Mistress Haylark to the match. What with presents, great gallantry of manner, and marked deference to all her opinions on ordinary topics, he so far won upon the proud lady that her resolution to maintain the honour of “the Haylarks” melted away like ice before his eloquence and earnestness. And after holding out for some time, “for the sake of form,” and in maintenance of her much self-styled “firmness,” she consented to the match, and began to bustle about in making suitable preparations for it. The intended marriage was kept as secret as possible, yet many female acquaintances soon became aware of the fact by some unknown means. And rumour had it that when Miss Josephine Smith, next door, heard of the approaching event, through the tattling of servants over the back-yard wall, she was seized with a sudden fit of hysterics, and gave vent to her disappointment and chagrin, in all manner of double-meaning phrases, and called Miss Clara everything that was unkind. Dame Worthington Was literally beside herself. She knew not what to do from day to day. The nearer the important event approached, the more affectionately she behaved both to Clara and Charley. She laughed and cried by turns, and said, “She always knew it.” Clara would kiss her, and Charley would joke her. But, despite all her apparent perturbation and anxiety, she found time to have frequent and long interviews with old Sir Richard, until the young couple, seated lovingly side by side on the parlour sofa, could not understand the nature of them. Dame Worthington deeply regretted that she could not possibly find accommodation for them in her house, but Sir Richard only smiled benignly and said, “Leave that matter to me, Harriet, my dear.” The old dame, full of confidence in his wisdom, _did_ leave that matter in his hands, fully assured that he would manage it far better than any one else. When the day approached, the hurry and bustle in the house increased tenfold, and to such a degree, that the servant confessed to Smith’s girl, across the back-yard wall, that “she was a’most worried to death,” and wished the marriage was over. On the eve of the wedding, when everything had been prepared, two legal gentlemen unexpectedly arrived and after candles were lit in Dame Worthington’s back parlour, they arranged their papers with much apparent satisfaction. Dame Worthington, the august Mistress Haylark, and the modest old Sir Richard, took their seats. Charley was summoned into their awful presence, Miss Clara following, feeling as she afterwards confessed it, “all of a tremble.”