somehow to upset the situation, just as one gives a
shake purposely to a bundle of spillikins on the chance of more
favourable openings. Mrs. Leyburn's mind was just now playing the part
of spillikins, and the vicar's wife was shaking it vigorously, though
with occasional qualms as to the lawfulness of the process.

'You think Catherine does care for him?' resumed Mrs. Leyburn
tremulously.

'Well, isn't he just the kind of man one would suppose Catherine would
like?' repeated Mrs. Thornburgh persuasively; 'he is a clergyman, and
she likes serious people; and he's sensible and nice and well-mannered.
And then he can talk about books, just like her father used--I'm sure
William thinks he knows everything! He isn't as nice-looking as he might
be just now, but then that's his hair and his fever, poor man. And then
he isn't hanging about. He's got a living, and there'd be the poor
people all ready, and everything else Catherine likes. And now I'll just
ask you--did you ever see Catherine more--more--_lively_--well, I know
that's not just the word, but you know what I mean--than she has been
the last fortnight?'

But Mrs. Leyburn only shook her head helplessly. She did not know in the
least what Mrs. Thornburgh meant. She never thought Catherine doleful,
and she agreed that certainly 'lively' was not the word.

'Girls get so frightfully particular nowadays,' continued the vicar's
wife, with reflective candour. 'Why, when William fell in love with me,
I just fell in love with him--at once--because he did. And if it hadn't
been William, but somebody else, it would have been the same. I don't
believe girls have got hearts like pebbles--if the man's nice, of
course!'

Mrs. Leyburn listened to this summary of matrimonial philosophy with the
same yielding flurried attention as she was always disposed to give to
the last speaker.

'But,' she said, still in a maze, 'if she did care for him, why should
she send him away?'

'_Because she won't have him!_' said Mrs. Thornburgh energetically,
leaning over the arm of her chair that she might bring herself nearer to
her companion.

The fatuity of the answer left Mrs. Leyburn staring.

'Because she won't have him, my dear Mrs. Leyburn! And--and--I'm sure
nothing would make me interfere like this if I weren't so fond of you
all, and if William and I didn't know for certain that there never was a
better young man born! And then I was just sure you'd be the last person
in the worl