John had felt tempted to push the conversation with Miss Jarvis, and he was about to utter something rapturous respecting the melodious poison of Little’s poems, as the blue eye of Emily rested on him in the fulness of sisterly affection and checking his love of the ridiculous, he quietly yielded to his respect for the innocence of his sisters; and, as if eager to draw the attention of all from the hateful subject, he put question after question to Egerton concerning the Spaniards and their customs.

“Did you ever meet Lord Pendennyss in Spain, Colonel Egerton?” inquired Mrs. Wilson, with interest.

“Never, madam,” he replied.  “I have much reason to regret that our service lay in different parts of the country:  his lordship was much with the duke, and I made the campaign under Marshal Beresford.”

Emily left the group at the window, and taking a seat on the sofa by the side of her aunt, insensibly led her to forget the gloomy thoughts which had begun to steal over her; which the colonel, approaching where they sat, continued, by asking—­

“Are you acquainted with the earl, madam?”

“Not in person, but by character,” said Mrs. Wilson, in a melancholy manner.

“His character as a soldier was very high.  He had no superior of his years in Spain, I am told.”

No reply was made to this remark, and Emily endeavored anxiously to draw the mind of her aunt to reflections of a more agreeable nature.  The colonel, whose vigilance to please was ever on the alert, kindly aided her, and they soon succeeded.

The merchant withdrew, with his family and guest, in proper season:  and Mrs. Wilson, heedful of her duty, took the opportunity of a quarter of an hour’s privacy in her own dressing-room in the evening, to touch gently on the subject of the gentlemen they had seen that day.

“How are you pleased, Emily, with your new acquaintances?” familiarly commenced Mrs. Wilson.

“Oh! aunt, don’t ask me; as John says, they are net indeed.”

“I am not sorry,” continued the aunt, “to have you observe more closely than you have been used to the manners of such women as the Jarvises; they are too abrupt and unpleasant to create a dread of any imitation; but the gentlemen are heroes in very different styles.”

“Different from each other, indeed.”

“To which do you give the preference, my dear?”

“Preference, aunt!” said her niece, with a look of astonishment; “preference is a strong word for either; but I rather think the captain the most eligible companion of the two.  I do believe you see the worst of him; and although I acknowledge it to be bad enough, he might amend; but the colonel”—­

“Go on,” said Mrs. Wilson.

“Why, everything about the colonel seems so seated, so ingrafted in his nature, so—­so very self-satisfied, that I am afraid it would be a difficult task to take the first step in amendment—­to convince him of its necessity?