Free General Well'ngone In Love by Libi Astaire Page B

insisted
Mrs Lyon.
    “ That is why I should like to tell you my scheme, Papa. I have
also tried to think of a way to help Mr Taylor and his
sister.”
    “ If your intention is to help and not harm, Hannah, I should
very much like to hear what you have to say.”
    “ You, Papa, would not notice the expert manner in which Miss
Taylor has mended and refashioned her walking costume from last
year, but such things do attract a lady’s eye. I therefore thought
that perhaps she could be employed to teach needlework to Rebecca
and Esther and Sarah. We could say that she would be doing us a
great favour, since Mama and I are so busy with making bed linen
for the baby that we do not have the time to instruct the girls
ourselves.”
    “ If Miss Taylor would give her assent, it would be a very good
scheme, indeed. Do you not agree, Mrs Lyon?”
    “ With all my heart,” said Mrs Lyon. “Invite Miss Taylor to pay
us a call the day after tomorrow, Hannah. I shall inform Mrs
Baer.”
    “ Mrs Baer?” Mr Lyon protested. “Surely her duties at the
coffee house would prevent her from attending a sewing
party.”
    “ I do not like to contradict you, my dear, but I assure you
that once Mrs Baer hears that there is an orphaned young lady in
London who is in search of a husband, there is nothing that will
prevent her from making Miss Taylor’s acquaintance.”

CHAPTER
II
     
    To Rebecca’s
immense relief, the ladies invited to the sewing party were too
busy admiring the skilled alterations that Miss Taylor made to one
of Hannah’s bonnets to pay much attention to her own attempt to
embroider a handkerchief. Mrs Baer, in particular, was effusive
with her compliments, and at the first occasion when Miss Taylor
was out of earshot, she whispered to Mrs Lyon, “I know just the
young man.”
    “ Who?” asked Mrs Lyon, dropping a stitch in her excitement to
learn which person had been chosen to be Miss Taylor’s future
husband.
    Should the
Reader be surprised that the future happiness of a young lady
should be decided by someone who has made her acquaintance only an
hour before, it can only be because you are not yet acquainted with
the formidable powers of Mrs Baer, a woman in our community who is
as well known for her matchmaking abilities as for her delicious
kugels, which is saying a great deal. Just as some people have a
talent for discovering the interlocking mysteries of nature or the
navigational secrets of the star-filled sky, Mrs Baer has been
blessed with an uncanny ability to dissect the mystery of a young
person’s soul and—like the knowledgeable surgeon who knits together
a fragmented bone with its fellow—join that soul to the mate who
will both appreciate their good qualities and help them to smooth
those still jagged edges where improvement is needed.
    But before Mrs
Baer could deposit the young man’s name into Mrs Lyon’s waiting
ear, Miss Taylor had finished her tour of the china cabinet, where
a series of china plates painted by Miss Rebecca Lyon was on
display, and retaken her seat.
    “ You must be very proud of your daughter’s talents, Mrs Lyon,”
she said. “I would give much to be able to paint as
well.”
    Mrs Lyon,
unaccustomed to hearing her second daughter so highly praised, was
momentarily at a loss for words. Miss Lyon was also surprised, but
her astonishment expressed itself in a torrent of conversation.
    “ Do you really admire them, Miss Taylor?” Rebecca gushed. “It
would be my pleasure to teach you how to paint, if you are sincere
in your admiration, and perhaps you, in return, could teach me how
to sew. I am frightfully backward in the art, which causes my
mother immense pain.”
    “ If the arrangement meets the approval of Mrs Lyon, I should
be very happy to do so,” replied Miss Taylor.
    Mrs Lyon shot
a hasty glance in Hannah’s direction, but Hannah’s downcast eyes
were busy examining the remains of a piece of seed cake that sat on
her plate.
    “ I fear this is an unfair