.

"She sees us, though we do not see her; and she thanks you, George, for
having been good to her children," her husband said.

He, we thought, would not be long ere he joined her. His love for her
had been the happiness and business of his whole life. To be away from
her seemed living no more. It was pitiable to watch the good man as
he sate with us. My wife, in her air and in many tones and gestures,
constantly recalled her mother to the bereaved widower's heart. What
cheer we could give him in his calamity we offered; but, especially,
little Hetty was now, under Heaven, his chief support and consolation.
She had refused more than one advantageous match in the Island, the
General told us; and on her return to England, my Lord Wrotham's heir
laid himself at her feet. But she loved best to stay with her father,
Hetty said. As long as he was not tired of her she cared for no husband.

"Nay," said we, when this last great match was proposed, "let the
General stay six months with us at the Manor here, and you can have him
at Oakhurst for the other six."

But Hetty declared her father never could bear Oakhurst again now that
her mother was gone; and she would marry no man for his coronet and
money--not she! The General, when we talked this matter over, said
gravely that the child had no desire for marrying, owing possibly to
some disappointment in early life, of which she never spoke; and we,
respecting her feelings, were for our parts equally silent. My brother
Lambert had by this time a college living near to Winchester, and a wife
of course to adorn his parsonage. We professed but a moderate degree of
liking for this lady, though we made her welcome when she came to us.
Her idea regarding our poor Hetty's determined celibacy was different
to that which I had. This Mrs. Jack was a chatterbox of a woman, in
the habit of speaking her mind very freely, and of priding herself
excessively on her skill in giving pain to her friends.

"My dear Sir George," she was pleased to say, "I have often and often
told our dear Theo that I wouldn't have a pretty sister in my house to
make tea for Jack when I was upstairs, and always to be at hand when I
was wanted in the kitchen or nursery, and always to be dressed neat and
in her best when I was very likely making pies or puddings or looking to
the children. I have every confidence in Jack, of course. I should like
to see him look at another woman, indeed! And so I have in Jemima but