idea would never enter the
vicar's head."

"Oh dear, no. But after all it does not matter, Die; nothing would
induce Mr. Carlyon to leave his son's roof. I do not believe that any
amount of creature comforts or learned conversations would tempt him
away from his boy. I think their affection for each other is one of the
most touching things I know."

"Indeed it is, Betty," and Dinah looked at her sister rather wistfully;
but Elizabeth was too much engrossed with her subject to notice her.

"David's attachment to his father is quite beautiful," she went on;
"but I cannot help wondering over it sometimes. He seems as proud of
that shabby, mild-spoken little man as though he were a bishop in lawn
sleeves, and not a broken-down, hard-working curate-in-charge, who
preaches dull, dry little sermons."

"But his life is his best sermon, Betty!"

"Ah, you are right there," and Elizabeth's beaming look was good to
see. "David sometimes tells me that his father's patience with Theo is
almost angelic. 'I don't know how he bears it,' he said once. 'I am not
particular about food myself, and would dine cheerfully on bread and
cheese any day; but I hate a smoky chimney and dust; and really that
Bridget of theirs is a terrible female, and one of the worst specimens
of a maid-of-all-work that I ever knew. I took to dusting the place
myself, but Theo never noticed it.' Well, well, it's a queer world,
Die. Now it is late and I am keeping you up," and then the sisters
kissed each other affectionately, and Elizabeth withdrew to her own
room.

Dinah sat still in her chair, and there was a thoughtful, almost a
perplexed look on her face.

"I wish I could understand it," she said to herself; "but in some
things Betty is so reserved. People who only know her a little would
never find it out. They persist that she is frankness itself, but there
are limits that no one can overstep--even I dare not." Here Dinah
paused. "But she knows very well that I should never ask her the
question."

"All the same," a moment later, "I am sorely puzzled. Is it only a
friendship between those two, or is it something else on David
Carlyon's part? Once or twice I have seen him looking at her as a man
only looks at one woman."

"If I could venture to give her a hint, to beg her to be careful!
Elizabeth is so careless. She has no idea of her own attractions, and
how irresistible she can be. It is all very well for her to say she is
older than David, and