ence was the one who was _de trop_ in the little party; but he
fiddled beatifically, with his eyes fixed on the ceiling, without the
slightest suspicion of the fact, while Phoebe accompanied him, with
little smiles at her friends, and shrugs of her shoulders. Reginald felt
very strongly, though for the first time, that she was over doing the
Scriptural maxim of being all things to all men.

CHAPTER XXX.

SOCIETY AT THE PARSONAGE.

After this dinner-party, such as it was, the Parsonage became gradually
the centre of a little society, such as sometimes forms in the most
accidental way in a house where there are young men and young women, and
of which no one can say what momentous results may arise. They came
together fortuitously, blown to one centre by the merest winds of
circumstance, out of circles totally different and unlike. Why it was
that Mr. May, so good a Churchman, permitted two people so entirely out
of his sphere to become his habitual guests and the companions of his
children was very perplexing to the outside world, who half in mere
surprise, and a little in despite, wondered and commented till they were
tired, or till they had become so familiar with the strange spectacle
that it ceased to strike them. A rich pupil might be forgiven for being
a Dissenter, indeed in Carlingford as elsewhere money made up for most
deficiencies; but even natural complacency towards the rich pupil
scarcely accounted for the reception of the others. The neighbours could
never be quite sure whether the family at the Parsonage knew or did not
know that their new friend Northcote was not only acting as Minister of
Salem Chapel, but was the assailant of Reginald May at the
Anti-Establishment Meeting, and various persons in Grange Lane held
themselves for a long time on the tip-toe of preparation, ready to
breathe to Mr. May the painful intelligence, in case he was unaware of
it. But he never gave them the opportunity. Honestly, he had forgotten
the speaker's name at first, and only recognized him when he was
introduced by young Copperhead; and then the situation was piquant and
amused him, especially the evident confusion and consternation of the
culprit when found out.

"I don't know what he thinks he has done to you," said Clarence, "I
could scarcely make him come in. He says he is sure you can't wish to
see him."

This was two days after the dinner, when Horace Northcote came to leave
a respectful card, hoping that