iage is a
subject upon which I have never thought for myself."

"Rebecca!"

"Well, not directly," replied the lady. "I may perhaps have given such
a matter a thought indirectly, but in your case I have thought about it
a great deal."

"Pray say no more, Rebecca."

"I must say more, Beatrice, for in a case like this, your welfare is at
stake, and for my part, I do not see how George Canninge could do better
than by making you mistress of Ardley."

"My dear Rebecca!"

"It would be rather stooping on our side, for the Canninges are little
better than traders; but Mrs Canninge is very nice, and I said to her,
yesterday--"

"Surely, Rebecca, you did not allude to--to--"

"George Canninge and yourself? Indeed, I did, my dear. Mrs Canninge
and I thoroughly understand one another, and I feel sure that nothing
would please her better than for George Canninge to propose to you."

Miss Beatrice sighed softly, and soon after the sisters went up to
dress.

For it was a festival day at Plumton All Saints, being that of the
annual school feast.

This school feast or treat was rather an ancient institution, and was
coeval with the schools, but it had altered very much in its proportions
since its earlier days, when the schoolmaster invested in a penny
memorandum-book, and went round to all the principal inhabitants for
subscriptions, which rarely exceeded a shilling, and had to be lectured
by each donor upon the best way of teaching the children under his
charge. Those treats first consisted of a ride in one of the farmers'
waggons as far as a field, where the children were regaled with very
thin milk and water, and slices of large loaves spotted with currants,
which slices were duly baptised in the milk and water, and called by the
children--"cake."

Then there was a great advance to a real tea in a barn, and again a more
generous affair through the generosity of one vicar, who had the
children all up to the vicarage, and after they had done no little
mischief to his flower-beds, sent them home loaded with fruity cakes,
and toys.

Then there was a decadence with a tendency towards thin milk and water
and country buns, followed by a tremendous rise when Mr William Forth
Burge came upon the scene; and the present was the second feast over
which he had been presiding genius.

In preparation for this festival, probably for reasons of his own, the
patron had gone about smiling a great deal, and rubbing his hands. H