ongest back and thinnest neck--and his head
regularly wiggle-waggles over his shoulder,--it will drop off some fine
day,--well, I won't then, I'll to the point, as the books say. If Sue
will only look a little, little bit relenting?"

"You are wounding Sue in her tenderest point," said Sybil, at length
aroused to take part in the conversation. "Don't you know that, by now?
Sue is a pillar of the church----"

"It is absurd to make game of Mr. Custance, at any rate," interposed
Maud authoritatively. "He is a very good parish clergyman, and much more
of a _gentleman_ than any of those you were accustomed to at Deeside,"
and she threw an immeasurable contempt into her tone. "I never saw one
with either decent manners or appearance at your table."

"That's a nasty one," muttered Sybil. Then aloud: "Now we've all had our
whack at each other, and Leo has next innings; what is it you want to
say, Leo? Never mind Maud; you tell Sue and me your little joke, and let
us pronounce upon it."

"No, I think we have had enough;" Sue rose from her seat in offended
dignity. "Leo has got to learn that a friend's name should not be
bandied about, a mark for insults----"

"But I wasn't--but I didn't;" the momentary mortification Leo had
undergone was forgotten in an instant, and all haste and incoherence
she sprang after her sister's retreating figure, and caught it. "Sue,
dear Sue, you know I never thought of such a thing. Insults? Oh, Sue!"

"They sounded like insults, Leo."

"Then they had no business to. I never would insult anybody, least of
all a nice good creature like Euty--there now, you are vexed again. But
do let me just say why I laughed about being 'permitted' to see him. It
is because he regularly haunts my steps when I'm alone. He does, indeed
he does, the dear good man. No doubt he has his reasons, but when you
spoke with bated breath----"

"I don't know what you can possibly mean, Leo."

"Oh, yes, you do. You think it a blessed privilege----"

"It _is_ a privilege."

"Not to me. I am hard put to it sometimes to scuttle out of his way."

"To scuttle out of his way!"--for sheer amazement Sue paused to listen.

"It's true, it's perfectly true." Leo nodded at her with mischievous
pertinacity. "I am forever running across old Euty--Mr. Custance,
then,--because, of course, he does tramp round his parish like a gallant
old soul, and I'm sure I honour him for it,--but I have nowhere else to
go either. It has been so a