Clara was certainly, too busily occupied in picking raisins from her pudding to hear this remark, but accidentally stole, from under her long eyelashes, a timid glance at her father as he replied: 

“I am sorry, my friend, I have not sufficient interest with his lordship to apply on my own account; but he is so seldom here, we are barely acquainted;” and the good baronet looked really concerned.

“Clara,” said Francis Ives in a low and affectionate tone, “have you read the books I sent you?”

Clara answered him with a smile in the negative, but promised amendment as soon as she had leisure.

“Do you ride much, on horseback, Mr. Moseley?” abruptly asked Miss Sarah, turning her back on the young divine, and facing the gentleman she addressed.  John, who was now hemmed in between the sisters, replied with a rueful expression that brought a smile into the face of Emily, who was placed opposite to him—­

“Yes, ma’am, and sometimes I am ridden.”

“Ridden, sir, what do you mean by that?”

“Oh! only my aunt there occasionally gives me a lecture.”

“I understand,” said the lady, pointing slily with her finger at her own father.

“Does it feel good?” John inquired, with a look of, great sympathy.  But the lady, who now felt awkwardly, without knowing exactly why, shook her head in silence, and forced a faint laugh.

“Whom have we here?” cried Captain Jarvis, who was looking out at a window which commanded a view of the approach to the house—­“the apothecary and his attendant judging from the equipage.”

The rector threw an inquiring look on a servant, who told his master they were strangers to him.

“Have them shown up, doctor,” cried the benevolent baronet, who loved to see every one as happy as himself, “and give them some of your excellent pasty, for the sake of hospitality and the credit of your cook, I beg of you.”

As this request was politely seconded by others of the party, the rector ordered his servants to show in the strangers.

On opening the parlor door, a gentleman, apparently sixty years of age, appeared, leaning on the arm of a youth of five-and-twenty.  There was sufficient resemblance between the two for the most indifferent observer to pronounce them father and son; but the helpless debility and emaciated figure of the former, were finely contrasted by the vigorous health and manly beauty of the latter, who supported his venerable parent into the room with a grace and tenderness that struck most of the beholders with a sensation of pleasure.  The doctor and Mrs. Ives rose from their seats involuntarily, and each stood for a moment, lost in an astonishment that was mingled with grief.  Recollecting himself, the rector grasped the extended hand of the senior in both his own, and endeavored to utter something, but in vain.  The tears followed each other down his cheeks, as he looked on the faded and careworn figure which stood before him; while his wife, unable to control her feelings, sank back into a chair and wept aloud.