n in a public office, with a good salary and a
little property of his own, besides) were received--that the four Miss
Willises were courted in due form by the said Mr Robinson--that the
neighbours were perfectly frantic in their anxiety to discover which of
the four Miss Willises was the fortunate fair, and that the difficulty
they experienced in solving the problem was not at all lessened by the
announcement of the eldest Miss Willis,--'_We_ are going to marry Mr.
Robinson.'

It was very extraordinary. They were so completely identified, the one
with the other, that the curiosity of the whole row--even of the old lady
herself--was roused almost beyond endurance. The subject was discussed
at every little card-table and tea-drinking. The old gentleman of
silk-worm notoriety did not hesitate to express his decided opinion that
Mr. Robinson was of Eastern descent, and contemplated marrying the whole
family at once; and the row, generally, shook their heads with
considerable gravity, and declared the business to be very mysterious.
They hoped it might all end well;--it certainly had a very singular
appearance, but still it would be uncharitable to express any opinion
without good grounds to go upon, and certainly the Miss Willises were
_quite_ old enough to judge for themselves, and to be sure people ought
to know their own business best, and so forth.

At last, one fine morning, at a quarter before eight o'clock, A.M., two
glass-coaches drove up to the Miss Willises' door, at which Mr. Robinson
had arrived in a cab ten minutes before, dressed in a light-blue coat and
double-milled kersey pantaloons, white neckerchief, pumps, and
dress-gloves, his manner denoting, as appeared from the evidence of the
housemaid at No. 23, who was sweeping the door-steps at the time, a
considerable degree of nervous excitement. It was also hastily reported
on the same testimony, that the cook who opened the door, wore a large
white bow of unusual dimensions, in a much smarter head-dress than the
regulation cap to which the Miss Willises invariably restricted the
somewhat excursive tastes of female servants in general.

The intelligence spread rapidly from house to house. It was quite clear
that the eventful morning had at length arrived; the whole row stationed
themselves behind their first and second floor blinds, and waited the
result in breathless expectation.

At last the Miss Willises' door opened; the door of the first glass-coa