countess. Le futur must be rich, and I am afraid that she is unreasonable enough to expect that he should be young, and good-looking also."
"And pray what would you like yourself?" asked her sister.
"I ask three good qualities," replied Isabella, somewhat seriously; "he must be kind, rich, and rational."
"Certainly young ladies now-a-days think a great deal more about money than I did when I was a girl, and yet I made a great match," said Mrs. Palmer, looking reverently back to the honours and glories of her first marriage. "My dears, when I married poor dear Black, he had two carriages, ten servants, and a house in the Paragon." The girls well knew what was coming, and at once looked serious attention. "But, my dears," continued the old lady, "human prosperity is but a bubble, especially on the stock-exchange. At first I might have had gold, if I could have eaten it; I afterwards knew what it was to want bread. But we had good friends: do not believe those, my dear children, who say that there is no kindness or gratitude in the world. We met with both. I opened a school on Clapham Common, and in the course of a year twenty old friends sent me their children."
"How kind you would be to them!" exclaimed Helen, whose large soft grey eyes were yet larger and softer, for the tears that had gradually swelled beneath the long dark lashes.
