Her father answered quietly, that he expected Miss Elwyn by the afternoon stage.

“Is she one of these prim, old-maidish governesses, like our poor old Miss Pratt?” asked Miss Calista, a lady of something over thirty, and rather the worse for twelve years’ wear, in the way of balls and parties, the theatre and the opera.  Indeed, at the breakfast table, Miss Calista looked considerably older than she really was, with her pale, faded cheeks, and her hair “en papillottes;” but, in the afternoon, by the use of a little artificial bloom, some cork-screw ringlets, and a manner as gay and girlish as that of her sister, she appeared quite another creature.

To Miss Calista’s question Mr. Fairland, with an amused pucker about the mouth, answered: 

“Oh, I shall tell you nothing about her looks; you must wait and judge for yourselves.  There’s one thing I will say, however.  I suppose you can’t alter your looks, girls; but, as far as manners are concerned, I wish very much that I could place my two eldest daughters under Miss Elwyn’s tuition.”

“Perhaps she will condescend to take a class, twice or three times a week, in ‘manners for six-pence,’” said the sprightly Miss Evelina.  “I should like to see Calista and myself curtseying, and walking, and leaving and entering a room, as we used to be obliged to do for old Miss Pratt.  Wouldn’t you, Calista?”

“Let’s see,” said Mr. Fairland, whose reminiscences were not always of the most agreeable nature to the young ladies—­“let’s see.  How long is it since you and C’listy were under the care of Miss Pratt?  I think it must be nigh twenty years.”

“Twenty years, papa!—­absurd!” shrieked Miss Calista; “why, you must be losing your memory!”

Now, if Mr. Fairland’s daughters were touchy on the subject of their ages, their father was no less so on that of his memory, as Miss Calista well knew when she made the foregoing remark.

“Losing my memory indeed, Miss C’listy!  My memory is as sound as ever; and, to prove it to you, I will inform you, that I shall be sixty-four years old this coming August; and by the same token, you are just exactly half my age; and if you don’t believe it, you may just take a look at the family record, in the big Bible.”

“C’listy’s scratched out her date," said little Rosa, “and so has Evelina.”

“Hold your tongue, you impertinent little minx!” said Miss Calista; “I really hope the prinky old governess who is coming will be able to whip a little manners into you.  I really wonder you can allow the children to be so pert, mamma!”

The lady addressed as "mamma" was the second wife of Mr. Fairland, a rather handsome, but very languid lady of forty, who was sleepily sipping her coffee during the foregoing conversation.  Now, as Mrs. Fairland did not look much older (perhaps not at all older, at the breakfast table,) than the oldest of her step-daughters, the young ladies quite prided themselves on so youthful a “mamma;” and when in company, or at the various watering-places to which, in former tunes, they had succeeded in dragging their parents, they hung round her, and asked her permission to do this and that, with the most child-like confidence in her judgment.