the fact he had mentioned, asked him to sit down.

"I have called," said he, taking his seat, "hoping to be allowed to
speak to you on a subject of extreme delicacy."

"Indeed," said Lady Ball, thinking to catch his eye, and failing in
the effort.

"I may say of very extreme delicacy. I believe your niece, Miss
Margaret Mackenzie, is staying here?" In answer to this, Lady Ball
acknowledged that Miss Mackenzie was now at the Cedars.

"Have you any objection, Lady Ball, to allowing me to see her in your
presence?"

Lady Ball was a quick-thinking, intelligent, and, at the same time,
prudent old lady, and she gave no answer to this before she had
considered the import of the question. Why should this clergyman want
to see Margaret? And would his seeing her conduce most to her own
success, or to Margaret's? Then there was the fact that Margaret was
of an age which entitled her to the right of seeing any visitor who
might call on her. Thinking over all this as best she could in the
few moments at her command, and thinking also of this clergyman's
stipulation that she was to be present at the interview, she
said that she had no objection whatever. She would send for Miss
Mackenzie.

She rose to ring the bell, but Mr Maguire, also rising from his
chair, stopped her hand.

"Pardon me for a moment," said he. "Before you call Margaret to come
down I would wish to explain to you for what purpose I have come
here."

Lady Ball, when she heard the man call her niece by her Christian
name, listened with all her ears. Under no circumstances but one
could such a man call such a woman by her Christian name in such
company.

"Lady Ball," he said, "I do not know whether you may be aware of it
or no, but I am engaged to marry your niece."

Lady Ball, who had not yet resumed her seat, now did so.

"I had not heard of it," she said.

"It may be so," said Mr Maguire.

"It is so," said Lady Ball.

"Very probably. There are many reasons which operate upon young
ladies in such a condition to keep their secret even from their
nearest relatives. For myself, being a clergyman of the Church of
England, professing evangelical doctrines, and therefore, as I had
need not say, averse to everything that may have about it even a
seeming of impropriety, I think it best to declare the fact to you,
even though in doing so I may perhaps give some offence to dear
Margaret."

It must, I think, be acknowledged that Mr Maguire was true to
him