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48 A SHABBY GENTEEL STORY
the wine-merchant pretty often, and it is believed had gone very
nigh to accept him. As for Miss Rosalind, I am sorry to say that
the course of her true love ran by no means smoothly : the Frenchman
had turned out to be not a marquess, but a billiard-marker ;
and a sad sore subject the disappointment was with the neglected
lady.
We should have spoken of it long since, had the subject been
one that was much canvassed in the Gann family ; but once when
Gann had endeavoured to rally his step-daughter on this unfortunate
attachment (using for the purpose those delicate turns of wit
for which the honest gentleman was always famous), Miss Linda
had flown into such a violent fury, and comported herself in a way
so dreadful, that James Gann, Esquire, was fairly frightened out of
his wits by the threats, screams, and imprecations which she uttered.
Miss Bella, who was disposed to be jocose likewise, was likewise
awed into silence ; for her dear sister talked of tearing her eyes out
that minute, and uttered some hints, too, regarding love-matters
personally affecting Miss Bella herself, which caused that young
lady to turn pale-red, to mutter something about "wicked lies,"
and to leave the room immediately. Nor was the subject ever
again broached by the Ganns. Even when Mrs. Gann once talked
about that odious French impostor, she was stopped immediately,
not by the lady concerned, but by Miss Bella, who cried sharply,
"Mamma, hold your tongue, and don't vex our dear Linda by
alluding to any such stuff." It is most probable that the young
ladies had had a private conference, which, beginning a little fiercely
at first, had ended amicably ; and so the marquess was mentioned
no more.
Miss Linda, then, was comparatively free (for Bob Smith, the
linendraper, and young Glauber, the apothecary, went for nothing);
and, very luckily for her, a successor was found for the faithless
Frenchman, almost immediately.
This gentleman was a commoner, to be sure ; but had a good
estate of five hundred a year, kept his horse and gig, and was, as
Mr. Gann remarked, as good a fellow as ever lived. Let us say
at once that the new lover was no other than Mr. Swigby. From
the day when he had been introduced to the family he appeared to
be very much attracted by the two sisters ; sent a turkey off his
own farm, and six bottles of prime Hollands, to Mr. and Mrs.
Gann, in presents ; and, in ten short days after his first visit, had
informed his friend Grann that he was violently in love with two
women whose names he would never—never breathe. The worthy
Gann knew right well how the matter was ; for he had not failed to
remark Swigby's melancholy, and to attribute it to its right cause.