on the following morning, Fanny had carried herself with bravery, and Mrs. Clavering had been disposed to think that her daughter’s heart was not wounded deeply.  She had admitted the impossibility of her marriage with Mr. Saul, and had never insisted on the strength of her attachment.  But no sooner was she told that Mr. Saul had been banished from the house, than she took upon herself to mope in the most love-lorn fashion, and behaved herself as though she were the victim of an all-absorbing passion.  Between her and her father no word on the subject had been spoken, and even to her mother she was silent, respectful and subdued, as it becomes daughters to be who are hardly used when they are in love.  Now, Mrs. Clavering felt that in this her daughter was not treating her well.

“But you don’t mean to say that she cares for him?” Harry said to his mother, when they were alone on the evening of his arrival.

“Yes, she cares for him, certainly.  As far as I can tell, she cares for him very much.”

“It is the oddest thing I ever knew in my life.  I should have said he was the last man in the world for success of that kind.”

“One never can tell, Harry.  You see he is a very good young man.”

“But girls don’t fall in love with men because they’re good, mother.”

“I hope they do—­for that and other things together.”

“But he has got none of the other things.  What a pity it was that he was let to stay here after he first made a fool of himself.”

“It’s too late to think of that now, Harry.  Of course she can’t marry him.  They would have nothing to live on.  I should say that he has no prospect of a living.”

“I can’t conceive how a man can do such a wicked thing,” said Harry, moralizing, and forgetting for a moment his own sins.  “Coming into a house like this, and in such a position, and then undermining a girl’s affections, when he must know that it is quite out of the question that he should marry her!  I call it downright wicked.  It is treachery of the worst sort, and coming from a clergyman is, of course, the more to be condemned.  I shan’t be slow to tell him my mind.”

“You will gain nothing by quarrelling with him.”

“But how can I help it, if I am to see him at all?”

“I mean that I would not be rough with him.  The great thing is to make him feel that he should go away as soon as possible, and renounce all idea of seeing Fanny again.  You see, your father will have no conversation with him at all, and it is so disagreeable about the services.  They’ll have to meet in the vestry-room on Sunday, and they won’t speak.  Will not that be terrible?  Anything will be better than that he should remain here.”

“And. what will my father do for a curate?”

“He can’t do anything till he knows when Mr. Saul will go.  He talks of taking all the services himself.”

“He couldn’t do it, mother.  He must not think of it.  However, I’ll see Saul the first thing to-morrow.”