"That is nothing to the purpose," retorted the lady calmly. "The Osbornes are to be no rule for us. You had better meet every night and break up two hours sooner." So far the subject was very often carried; but Mr. and Mrs. Edwards were so wise as never to pass that point; and Mr. Edwards now turned to something else. He had lived long enough in the idleness of a town to become a little of a gossip, and having some anxiety to know more of the circumstances of his young guest than had yet reached him, he began with-- "I think, Miss Emma, I remember your aunt very well, about thirty years ago; I am pretty sure I danced with her in the old rooms at Bath the year before I married. She was a very fine woman then, but like other people, I suppose, she is grown somewhat older since that time. I hope she is likely to be happy in her second choice." "I hope so; I believe so, sir," said Emma, in some agitation. "Mr. Turner had not been dead a great while, I think?" "About two years, sir." "I forget what her name is now." "O'Brien." "Irish! Ah, I remember; and she is gone to settle in Ireland. I do not wonder that you should not wish to go with her into _that_ country, Miss Emma; but it must be a great deprivation to her, poor lady! after bringing you up like a child of her own." "I was not so ungrateful, sir," said Emma, warmly, "as to wish to be anywhere but with her. It did not suit Captain O'Brien that I should be of the party." "Captain!" repeated Mrs. Edwards. "The gentleman is in the army, then?" "Yes, ma'am." "Aye, there is nothing like your officers for captivating the ladies, young or old. There is no resisting a cockade, my dear." "I hope there is," said Mrs. Edwards gravely, with a quick glance at her daughter; and Emma had just recovered from her own perturbation in time to see a blush on Miss Edwards' cheek; and, in remembering what Elizabeth had said of Captain Hunter, to wonder and waver between his influence and her brother's. "Elderly ladies should be careful how they make a second choice," observed Mr. Edwards. "Carefulness and discretion should not be confined to elderly ladies, or to a second choice," added his wife. "They are quite as necessary to young ladies in their first." "Rather more so, my dear," replied he; "because young ladies are likely to feel the effects of it longer. When an old lady plays the fool, it is not in the course of nature that she should suffer from it many years." Emma drew her hand across her eyes; and Mrs. Edwards, in perceiving it, changed the subject to one of less anxiety to all.