f."

"It must be a mistake," said Ursula, growing pale. Her hands came
together half-unconsciously, and clasped in a mute gesture of appeal.
"It is not possible; it cannot be true."

"Well, it is very odd that your papa should show such charity, I allow.
I don't think it is in human nature. And Reginald, what does Reginald
say? If it is that man, it will be the strangest thing I ever heard of.
But there could not be two Northcotes, Dissenting Ministers in
Carlingford, could there? It is very strange. I can't think what your
papa can have had in his head. He is a man who would do a thing for a
deep reason, whether he liked it or not. How did this Mr. Northcote come
first here?"

"Oh, it was through Mr. Copperhead," said Janey. "It was the first
dinner-party we had. You should have seen the fright Ursula was in! And
papa would not let me come to dinner, which was a horrid shame. I am
sure I am big enough, bigger than Ursula."

"If he came with the pupil, that makes it all quite plain. I suppose
your papa did not want to quarrel with his pupil. What a predicament for
him, if that was the case! Poor Mr. May! Of course, he did not want to
be uncivil. Why, it was in the 'Gazette,' and the 'Express,' and all the
papers; an account of the Meeting, and that speech, and then a leading
article upon it. I always file the 'Express,' so you can see it if you
like. But what an embarrassment for your poor papa, Ursula, that you
should have taken this man up! And Reginald, how could he put up with
it, a touchy young man, always ready to take offence? You see now the
drawback of not paying a little attention to what is going on round you.
How uncomfortable you must have made them! It might be very well to look
over an offence, not to be unpleasant to the stranger; but that you
should have thoughtlessly led this man on into the position of an
intimate--"

"I did nothing of the sort," cried Ursula, growing red and growing pale,
starting up from her work with a sense of the intolerable which she
could not restrain. "What have I done to be spoken of so? I never led
him on, or any one. What you say is cruel, very cruel! and it is not
true."

"Isn't it true that he was here last night, following you about, as
Janey says? Oh, I know how these sort of things go on. But you ought to
think of your papa's position, and you ought to think of Reginald. If it
was to come to the Bishop's ears that St. Roque's Parsonage was a refuge
for Dissente