“Don’t say anything to Matty,” responded Alice Bell.  “She’ll be sure to giggle awfully when next they meet, if you do.  She can’t keep anything in, and she owned to Sophy and me that he had got her heart.  Well, yes, I suppose he was particular with her.  He danced with her, and he looked at her, only, I do think it was she squeezed his hand.”

“Oh, fie, Alice, to say such things of your sister.  Well, anyhow the town is full of it.  When I went out yesterday Mrs. Morris asked me point-blank if I hadn’t news for her, and Miss Peters has taken so frightfully to rolling her eyes whenever Matty and Captain Bertram are seen together, that I’m quite afraid she will contract a regular squint.  How long was he with Matty on the green last night, Alice?”

“About half-an-hour, I should say,” responded Alice.  “They walked round the Green five times, with me and Sophy doing gooseberry behind.  I don’t think Matty stopped laughing for a single minute, and the captain he did quiz her frightfully.”

“Poor man, he was trying to wheedle her heart out of her!” remarked the gratified mother.  “And he has all my sympathies, and what’s more, we must have him to supper, and lobsters and crabs, and anything else he fancies.  It isn’t for me to be hard-hearted, and not give the poor fellow his opportunities; and no doubt Matty will relent by-and-bye.”

“Oh, dear me, mother, she has relented now.  She’s only waiting and dying for him to pop the question.”

“If I were you, Alice, I wouldn’t make so light of your own sister.  Of course she is gratified by being spoken to and appreciated, but if you think a girl of mine is going to let herself down cheap—­well, she’ll be very different metal from her mother before her.  Three times Bell had to go on his knees for me, and he thought all the more of me for having to do it.  If I’m not mistaken, there are some in this town who are jealous of Matty.  Who would have thought that handsome friend of yours, Bee Meadowsweet, would be looked over and made nothing of, and my girl be the favored one?  Well, I must own I’m pleased, and so will her father be, too.  It’s a nice genteel connection, and they say there’s lots of money somewhere in the background.—­Oh, is that you, Matty?—­Goodness, child, don’t get your face so burnt,—­you shouldn’t go out without a veil in the sun.  Now come here, pet, sit down and keep cool, and I’ll bring in some buttermilk presently to bathe your neck and cheeks.  There’s nothing like buttermilk for burns.  Well, well, what were we talking about, Alice, when Matty came in?”

“About the person we’re always talking about,” replied Alice, rather crossly.  “About Captain Bertram.  Good gracious, Matty, it isn’t at all becoming to you to flame up in that sudden way.  Lor’ ma, look at her, she’s the color of a peony.”

[It may be remarked in passing that the Bells did not echo one another when at home.]

“Never mind, never mind,” retorted Mrs. Bell, who, with true delicacy, would not look at her blushing daughter.