the orthodox
doctrines with more grace than had belonged to the manner of the Doctor,
and illustrates them from time to time with a certain youthful glow, and
touches of passionate exhortation, which for many years the Ashfield
pulpit had not known. The old ladies befriend him and pet him in their
kindly way; and if at times his speculative humor (which he is not
wholly without) leads him beyond the bounds of the accepted doctrines,
he compounds the matter by strong assertion of those sturdy generalities
which lie at the bottom of the orthodox creed.

But his self-control is not so apparent in his social intercourse; and
before he has been three months in Ashfield, he has given tongue to
gossip, and all the old ladies comment upon his enslavement to the
pretty Rose Elderkin. And they talk by the book; he is desperately
enamored. Young clergymen have this way of falling, at sight, into the
toils, which is vastly refreshing to middle-aged observers. But we have
no occasion to detail his experience. An incident only of his recreative
pursuits in this direction belongs to our narrative.

Upon one of the botanical excursions of later spring which he had
inaugurated, and to which the maidenly modesty of Rose had suggested
that Adele should make a party, the young Catesby (who was a native of
Eastern Massachusetts) had asked in his _naive_ manner after her family
connections. An uncle of his had known a Mr. Maverick, who had long been
a resident of Europe.

"It may possibly be some relation of yours, Miss Maverick," said the
young minister.

"Do you recall the first name?" said Rose.

Mr. Catesby hesitated in that interesting way in which lovers are wont
to hesitate. No, he did not remember; but he was a jovial,
generous-hearted man, (he had heard his uncle often describe him,) who
must be now some fifty or sixty years old.--"Frank Maverick, to be sure;
I have the name."

"Why, it is my father," said Adele with a swift, happy rush of color to
her face.

"O no, Miss Maverick," said the young Catesby with a smile, "that is
quite impossible. The gentleman of whom I speak, and my uncle visited
him only three years ago, is a confirmed bachelor, and he had rallied
him, I remember, upon never having married."

The color left the cheeks of Adele.

"Frank, did you say?" persisted Rose.

"Frank was the name," said the innocent young clergyman; "and he was a
merchant, if I remember rightly, somewhere upon the Mediterranean."