n this matter strictly obeyed the
hints which Mr Stumfold had given for her guidance. No doubt she had
received benefit from the discourses which she had heard from that
gentleman each morning; and, let us hope, benefit also from the much
longer discourses which she had heard from Mr Stumfold's curate on
each evening. The Rev. Mr Maguire was very powerful, but he was also
very long; and Miss Mackenzie, who was hardly as yet entitled to rank
herself among the thoroughly converted, was inclined to think that
he was too long. She was, however, patient by nature, and willing to
bear much, if only some little might come to her in return. What of
social comfort she had expected to obtain from her churchgoings I
cannot quite define; but I think that she had unconsciously expected
something from them in that direction, and that she had been
disappointed.

But now, at nine o'clock on this appointed evening, she was of
a certainty and in very truth going into society. The card said
half-past eight; but the Sun had not yoked his horses so far away
from her Tyre, remote as that Tyre had been, as to have left her in
ignorance that half-past eight meant nine. When her watch showed her
that half-past eight had really come, she was fidgety, and rang the
bell to inquire whether the man might have probably forgotten to send
the fly; and yet she had been very careful to tell the man that she
did not wish to be at Mrs Stumfold's before nine.

"He understands, Miss," said the servant; "don't you be afeard; he's
a-doing of it every night."

Then she became painfully conscious that even the maid-servant knew
more of the social ways of the place than did she.

When she reached the top of Mrs Stumfold's stairs, her heart was in
her mouth, for she perceived immediately that she had kept people
waiting. After all, she had trusted to false intelligence in that
matter of the hour. Half-past eight had meant half-past eight,
and she ought to have known that this would be so in a house so
upright as that of Mrs Stumfold. That lady met her at the door, and
smiling--blandly, but, perhaps I might be permitted to say, not so
blandly as she might have smiled--conducted the stranger to a seat.

"We generally open with a little prayer, and for that purpose our
dear friends are kind enough to come to us punctually."

Then Mr Stumfold got up, and pressed her hand very kindly.

"I'm so sorry," Miss Mackenzie had uttered.

"Not in the least," he replie