“Has Mary spoken to you on the subject?” said Mrs Garth, secretly a little hurt that she had to be informed on it herself.

“Not a word.  I asked her about Fred once; I gave her a bit of a warning.  But she assured me she would never marry an idle self-indulgent man—­ nothing since.  But it seems Fred set on Mr. Farebrother to talk to her, because she had forbidden him to speak himself, and Mr. Farebrother has found out that she is fond of Fred, but says he must not be a clergyman.  Fred’s heart is fixed on Mary, that I can see:  it gives me a good opinion of the lad—­and we always liked him, Susan.”

“It is a pity for Mary, I think,” said Mrs. Garth.

“Why—­a pity?”

“Because, Caleb, she might have had a man who is worth twenty Fred Vincy’s.”

“Ah?” said Caleb, with surprise.

“I firmly believe that Mr. Farebrother is attached to her, and meant to make her an offer; but of course, now that Fred has used him as an envoy, there is an end to that better prospect.”  There was a severe precision in Mrs. Garth’s utterance.  She was vexed and disappointed, but she was bent on abstaining from useless words.

Caleb was silent a few moments under a conflict of feelings.  He looked at the floor and moved his head and hands in accompaniment to some inward argumentation.  At last he said—­

“That would have made me very proud and happy, Susan, and I should have been glad for your sake.  I’ve always felt that your belongings have never been on a level with you.  But you took me, though I was a plain man.”

“I took the best and cleverest man I had ever known,” said Mrs. Garth, convinced that she would never have loved any one who came short of that mark.

“Well, perhaps others thought you might have done better.  But it would have been worse for me.  And that is what touches me close about Fred. The lad is good at bottom, and clever enough to do, if he’s put in the right way; and he loves and honors my daughter beyond anything, and she has given him a sort of promise according to what he turns out.  I say, that young man’s soul is in my hand; and I’ll do the best I can for him, so help me God!  It’s my duty, Susan.”

Mrs. Garth was not given to tears, but there was a large one rolling down her face before her husband had finished.  It came from the pressure of various feelings, in which there was much affection and some vexation.  She wiped it away quickly, saying—­

“Few men besides you would think it a duty to add to their anxieties in that way, Caleb.”

“That signifies nothing—­what other men would think.  I’ve got a clear feeling inside me, and that I shall follow; and I hope your heart will go with me, Susan, in making everything as light as can be to Mary, poor child.”

Caleb, leaning back in his chair, looked with anxious appeal towards his wife.  She rose and kissed him, saying, “God bless you, Caleb!  Our children have a good father.”