. It was
at last settled that Mr Rubb should go down to Littlebath and bring
Susanna back with him; and this he did, not at all to that young
lady's satisfaction. It was understood that Susanna did not leave the
school, at which she had lately been received as a boarder; but the
holidays had come, and it was thought well that she should see her
father. During this time Miss Mackenzie received two letters from
Mr Maguire. In the first he pleaded hard for an answer to his offer.
He had, he said, now relinquished his curacy, having found the
interference of that terrible woman to be unendurable. He had left
his curacy, and was at present without employment. Under such
circumstances, "his Margaret" would understand how imperative it
was that he should receive an answer. A curacy, or, rather, a small
incumbency, had offered itself among the mines in Cornwall; but he
could not think of accepting this till he should know what "his
Margaret" might say to it.

To this Margaret answered most demurely, and perhaps a little slily.
She said that her brother's health and affairs were at present in
such a condition as to allow her to think of nothing else; that
she completely understood Mr Maguire's position, and that it was
essential that he should not be kept in suspense. Under these
combined circumstances she had no alternative but to release him from
the offer he had made. This she did with the less unwillingness as
it was probable that her pecuniary position would be considerably
altered by the change in her brother's family which they were now
expecting almost daily. Then she bade him farewell, with many
expressions of her esteem, and said that she hoped he might be happy
among the mines in Cornwall.

Such was her letter; but it did not satisfy Mr Maguire, and he wrote
a second letter. He had declined, he said, the incumbency among the
mines, having heard of something which he thought would suit him
better in Manchester. As to that, there was no immediate hurry, and
he proposed remaining at Littlebath for the next two months, having
been asked to undertake temporary duty in a neighbouring church for
that time. By the end of the two months he hoped that "his Margaret"
would be able to give him an answer in a different tone. As to her
pecuniary position, he would leave that, he said, "all to herself."

To this second letter Miss Mackenzie did not find it necessary to
send any reply. The domestics in the Mackenzie family were n