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Rh Allan is so much taken up with this overseer of Mr. Hammond's as the rest of them are."

"And to win Allan you should have Miss Staunton for your friend. That is a match coming on in time as sure as fate."

"I think it very likely," said Jessie. "It will be a great pleasure to me and to all of us, for she is the winsomest little creature that ever crept into a household, and the cleverest. She has been very serviceable to me in many ways. I never cared to learn much before, because I did not wish to raise myself above you, but when I found that you were so far ahead of me in schooling and the like, I have worked, and Amy says that I am the most patient of the lot of them, though Allan's more persevering. I see the end of my learning, but he does not."

"Will you write to my mother, Jessie?" said George eagerly; "it would gladden her heart to get a letter from you."

"If you wish it very much, George, I will," said Jessie. "Did you get any news about the young Squire Derrick that Amy wanted to hear about?"

"He was not at Stanmore when my mother wrote last. The old gentleman is failing fast and he had gone to the south of England for a change, and Mr. Anthony and Miss Derrick and