“And she'll go and fall in love, and there's an end of peace and fun, and cosy times, together. I see it all they'll go lovering around the house, and we shall have to dodge; Meg will be absorbed, and no good to me any more; Brooke will scratch up a fortune somehow,-- carry her off and make a hole in the family; and I shall break my heart, and everything will be abdominably uncomfortable. Oh deary me! why weren't we all boys? then there wouldn't be any bother!”