"Let us have some music, Miss Sedley—Amelia,"said George, who felt at that moment an extraordinary,almost irresistible impulse to seize the abovementioned young woman in his arms, and to kiss her in the face of the company; and she looked at him for a moment, and if I should say that they fell in love with each other at that single instant of time, I should perhaps be telling an untruth, for the fact is that these two young people had been bred up by their parents for this very purpose, and their banns had, as it were,been read in their respective families any time these ten years. They went off to the piano, which was situated, as pianos usually are, in the back drawingroom; and as it was rather dark, Miss Amelia, in the most unaffected way in the world, put her hand into Mr. Osborne's, who, of course, could see the way among the chairs and ottomans a great deal better than she could. But this arrangement left Mr. Joseph Sedley tete-a-tete with Rebecca, at the drawing-room table,where the latter was occupied in knitting a green silk purse.