"Do you ever have them about yourself?"
"No; excepting that I shall live and die an old maid; of course, there ought to be one in every family."
"Yes, and I reserve that post for Helen Denis! Now, never mind my humiliating experience, please tell me something more about Mr. Halliday?"
"I fancy Katie has left me but little to tell! I met him at Portrush, and there was nothing romantic about our first meeting; no rescue from a jungle; no hairbreadth escape—he was simply taking tea at the Reids, in the most hum-drum fashion. We used to go for expeditions along the coast, and sit upon the rocks by the sea, and watch the waves, or the moon, and talk—you understand the rest!" (smiling significantly). "And one night, as we were walking home, he asked me to marry him—oh, Helen, I was so surprised, and so happy! but it did not last long—"
"Do you ever hear of him now?"
"Yes, occasionally, through the Reids; but it is all over.—We shall never meet again."
"Well, at least you have the consolation of knowing that he loved you, and wished to make you his wife; there is some poor satisfaction in that, whilst I," and here she broke down, and buried her face in her hands. But this emotion was merely momentary; presently she lifted her face to her cousin, and said, "So you see that I have had a lesson for life; I shall never, never marry."
"Neither will I," returned Dido, with much emphasis.
In the midst of their interesting confidences, and mutual assurances of celibacy, the door opened, and Biddy's befrilled face was thrust in, recalling them sharply from romance to reality.
"Miss Dido, will ye come out, av ye plase! Mrs. Carmody says she'll go to two shillin' a hundred for them apples, and the onions sixpence a stone!"