h, and all the argufying in the world won't put that out of me."

It happened that Northcote was in the poulterer's shop, talking to the
poulterer himself at this moment, and he heard the conclusion of this
speech delivered with much unction and force. Such sentiments would have
charmed him three months ago, and probably he would have thought this
uneducated but strenuous partisan an extremely intelligent woman. He
hurried away now with an uncomfortable smile. If an opinion is the
right opinion, why should it have an air of absurdity thrown upon it by
being thus uttered in ungrammatical language by a poulterer's wife?
Truth is the same by whomsoever stated; but yet, was not dogmatism on
any subject the sign of an inexperienced and uncultivated, or a rude and
untutored mind? What did this woman know of the Parsonage, which she
supposed she helped to pay for? What had he himself known three months
ago of Reginald May, whom he had assaulted so savagely? This Church
family, which Mrs. Pigeon knew no better than to abuse, with what divine
charity it had received himself, notwithstanding his public sin against
it. When he thought of that public sin, Northcote's countenance glowed
with shame, and it continued to glow with a more agreeable warmth when
he escaped into thought of the goodness which the Mays had shown him.
Had there ever been such goodness? Was there ever so sweet a home of the
heart as that faded, homely drawing-room? His heart beat high, his steps
quickened; they carried him down Grange Lane in a path so often trod
that he felt there must be a special track of his own under the garden
walls, going Parsonage way.

CHAPTER XXXII.

LOVE-MAKING.

Mrs. Sam Hurst had been a long time out of Carlingford; she had been
paying visits among her friends, with whom, though the young Mays would
never believe it, she was very popular, for she was not ill-natured in
her gossip, and she was often amusing in the fulness of her interest in
other people. It was April when she came back, and the early warmth and
softness of the spring were beginning to be felt in Grange Lane; the
doors of the houses began to be left open, and the girls at the
Parsonage had taken to running out and in without their hats, gleaming
through the little shrubbery in front, and round to the back garden. One
evening it was so mild that they all (which comprehensive term,
sometimes extended to "the whole party," began to be commonly used among
th