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154 good girl, and naturally serious and thoughtful. You dwell too much on your age; a man at seven and thirty is in the prime of life." "Still," returned he, "twenty years is a great difference; however, I have done for the best, and such I hope it will turn out." Mrs. Palmer had no misgivings about the matter; still, she could not but observe that Isabella was not in her usual spirits; and, as the day approached, she grew more silent and more abstracted. Lady Anne thought of nothing beyond the new dresses, and the glittering "toys and trifles." Her sisters thought that silence was only part of being in love; and, though glad of what every one called "Isabella's good fortune," they were too sad, when they thought it involved their separation, to wonder that she should sometimes be sad like themselves. But Mrs. Palmer saw that there was more than the natural and sweet sorrow which a kind and affectionate temper feels at the prospect of parting with the companions of her girlhood; she had, to use the old lady's phrase, "evidently something on her mind." What that was, Mrs. Palmer learned two days before her marriage, when Isabella came, for the last time, to drink tea with her alone. "You are wrong," said the agitated girl, who had dwelt on one subject till she could bear its bitterness no longer, and confidence became the greatest relief.—"you are quite wrong, in supposing that I am not