"What is suitable for a married woman, is not fit for a girl," declared Mrs. Jenny. "Gertrude ought to get married, she is twenty years old."
"Ah! that reminds me,"--the mother had been turning over the patterns during the conversation,--"there is that letter from your last admirer, I must answer it. What am I to write him?--
"See here, Jenny, this brown ground with the blue spots is pretty, isn't it?--It is really a great bore to answer letters like that; why don't you do it yourself?"
"I am afraid my answer would not be dispassionate enough," replied the girl, calmly.
"Do you like him?" asked her sister.
The young girl ignored the question.
"I am afraid I might be bitter, and nothing is required but a purely business-like answer, as the question was purely one of business."
"You are delicious!" laughed the young wife. "O what a pity you had not lived in the middle ages, when the knights were obliged to go through so long a probation! Little goose, you must learn to take the world as it is. Do you suppose Arthur would have married me if I had had nothing? I assure you he would never have thought of it! And do you suppose I would have taken him if I had not known he was in good circumstances? Never! And what would you have more from us? we are a comparatively happy couple."
Gertrude looked at her sister in surprise, with a questioning look in her blue eyes.
"Comparatively happy?" she repeated in a low tone.