Mother and Sara are delighted with her; she plays so beautifully, and they say that she is such a gentlewoman.

When we come downstairs in the evening she will not allow me to creep into a corner; she makes me join in the conversation, and coaxes me to play my pieces; and she tries to prevent mother making horrid little remarks on my awkwardness.
'"It will all come right, Mrs.Garston," I heard her say one day.

"It is far wiser not to notice it: young girls are so sensitive, and Jocelyn is keenly alive to her shortcomings." And mother actually nodded assent to this, and the next moment she called me up, and said how much I had improved in my playing, and that Colonel Ferguson had told her that I had been exceedingly well taught.
'By the bye, I am quite sure that Colonel Ferguson intends to be my brother-in-law: he is always here in the evening, and yesterday he sent Sara such a magnificent bouquet.' Jill's chatty letters were always amusing.

She had prepared me beforehand, so I was not surprised at receiving a voluminous letter from Aunt Philippa a few days afterwards, informing me of Sara's engagement to Colonel Ferguson.
'Your uncle and I are delighted with the match,' she wrote.

'Colonel Ferguson belongs to a very good old family, and he has private property.
Your uncle says that he is a very intelligent man, and is much respected in the regiment.
'Mrs.Fullerton thinks it is a pity for Sara to marry a widower; but I call that nonsense; he is a young-looking man for his age, and every one thinks him so handsome.