lf that the thing should be over, and
he began to teach himself,--to try to teach himself,--that celibacy
was the state in which a clergyman might best live and do his duty.
But the lesson had not gone far with him before he shook himself, and
determined that he would try yet once again. If there had been such
a wound, why should not the wound be cured? Clarissa was at any rate
true. She would not falsely promise him a heart, when it was beyond
her power to give it. In October, therefore, he went again up to
London.

The cases for packing the books had not even yet been made, and Sir
Thomas was found in Southampton Buildings. The first words had, of
course, reference to the absent Squire. The squire of one's parish,
the head of one's family, and one's elder brother, when the three
are united in the same personage, will become important to one, even
though the personage himself be not heroic. Ralph had written home
twice, and everything was prospering with him. Sir Thomas, who had
become tired of his late ward, and who had thought worse of the
Eardham marriage than the thing deserved, was indifferent to the joys
of the Italian honeymoon. "They'll do very well, no doubt," said Sir
Thomas. "I was delighted to learn that Augusta bore her journey so
well," said Gregory. "Augustas always do bear their journeys well,"
said Sir Thomas; "though sometimes, I fancy, they find the days a
little too long."

But his tone was very different when Gregory asked his leave to make
one more attempt at Popham Villa. "I only hope you may succeed,--for
her sake, as well as for your own," said Sir Thomas. But when he was
asked as to the parson's chance of success, he declared that he could
say nothing. "She is changed, I think, from what she used to be,--is
more thoughtful, perhaps, and less giddy. It may be that such
change will turn her towards you." "I would not have her changed in
anything," said Gregory,--"except in her feelings towards myself."

He had been there twice or thrice before he found what he thought to
be an opportunity fit for the work that he had on hand. And yet both
Patience and Mary did for him and for her all that they knew how
to do. But in such a matter it is so hard to act without seeming
to act! She who can manoeuvre on such a field without displaying
her manoeuvres is indeed a general! No man need ever attempt the
execution of a task so delicate. Mary and Patience put their heads
together, and resolved that they