“Oh, because, Marguerite, dear, I don’t want you to have him!” said Nellie, with a show of great tenderness.

“Nonsense!”

“I do not believe you will, you see, but still I fear. Oh, Marguerite, he may be high-toned, magnanimous, and all that, but he is not tender, not gentle, not loving!”

“In a word—not a good nurse.”

“No.”

“Good! I do not want a nurse!”

“Ah! Marguerite, I am afraid of Philip Helmstedt. If you only knew how he treated his sister.”

“His sister! I did not even know he had one.”

“I dare say not; but he has. She is in the madhouse.”

“In the madhouse!”