"Do you see any strong indications of such attachment, Eliza?"

"Well, really, Benjamin," said she,--holding her needle to the light,
and bringing her spectacles to bear upon the somewhat difficult
operation (at her age) of threading it,--"really, I think you may leave
that matter to my management."

"The letter which I have received to-day from Mr. Maverick alludes to a
rumor of such intimacy."

"Really!"--and the lady eyes the Doctor with a look of keen expectation.

"Mr. Maverick," continued the Doctor, "in referring to the matter,
speaks of the probable loss of his fortune."

"Is it possible, brother? Loss of his fortune!" And the spinster gives
over attention to her work, while she taps with her thimble,
reflectively, upon the elbow of her chair. "I don't think, Benjamin,"
said she, "that Reuben has committed himself in any way."

"That is well, perhaps, Eliza; it is quite as I had supposed."

"And so the poor man's fortune is gone!" continued the spinster,
plaintively.

"Not gone absolutely, Eliza. Maverick's language is, that his estate is
in great peril," returned the Doctor.

"Ah!" The spinster is thoughtful and silent for a while, during which
the thimble-finger is also quiet. "Does your friend Maverick speak
approvingly of such an attachment, brother?"

"By no means, Eliza; he condemns it in the strongest terms."

Miss Johns is amazed at this revelation; and having taken off her
golden-bowed spectacles, she passes them, in a nervous way, from end to
end, upon the Doctor's table.

"Benjamin," says she presently, with a shrewd look and her sharpest
tone, "I don't think his fortune is in any peril whatever. I think
Reuben Johns is a good match for Miss Adele Maverick, any day."

"Tut, tut, Eliza! we must not glorify ourselves vainly. If Maverick
disapproves, and Reuben shows no inclination, our course is both plain
and easy."

"But I am not so sure about the inclination, Benjamin," said the
spinster, sharply; and she replaced her spectacles.

"If that is the case, I am very sorry," said the parson.

The good man had hoped that by only a partial revelation of the contents
of the letter he might divert his sister effectually from any
matrimonial schemes she might have in hand, and so spare himself the
pain of a full disclosure. It was quite evident to him, however, that
the opposition of Maverick, if unexplained, would only stimulate the
spinster to a new zeal in the furtherance of her pet proj