'"Then I can tell you she is a very pretty property."
'"If she were not in a ring-fence."
'"In good heart, William. That is, I mean an excellent disposition."
'"And well tilled—I should say well educated—by her three maiden aunts, who are the patterns of propriety."
'"Does any one follow the fashion?"
"In a high state of cultivation; that is, her mind highly cultivated, and according to the last new system—what is it?"
'"A four-course shift, I presume," replied William, laughing; "that is, dancing, singing, music, and drawing."
'"And only seventeen! Capital soil, promising good crops. What would you have more?"
"A very pretty estate, uncle, if it were not the estate of matrimony. I am sorry, very sorry, to disappoint you; but I must decline taking a lease of it for life."