Mrs.Heathcote gave her husband full credit for more than ordinary intelligence in reference to affairs appertaining to the breeding of sheep and the growing of wool, but she did not think highly of his discernment in such an affair as this.

She herself had been much quicker.

When she first saw Mr.Medlicot, she had felt it a godsend that such a man, with the look of a gentleman, and unmarried, should come into the neighborhood; and, in so feeling, her heart had been entirely with her sister.

For herself it mattered nothing who came or did not come, or whether a man were a bachelor, or possessed of a wife and a dozen children.

All that a girl had a right to want was a good husband.