d to irregularly ordained clergy. The
rest may follow in time."

And as for me, I hoped to goodness it would.

After that the Hayfork was very thoughtful all the way to the
crossroads, where we separated, he to return to his lodging in Over
Breckonton and I to go back to father's. Well, not just directly, of
course. I had to look in at Nance Edgar's cottage at the Bridge End.
It was my duty. Elsie was there, sitting reading by the window. She
had been doing German or something with the schoolmaster's sister, and,
for a wonder, was quite pleased to see me. She mostly wasn't, if I
interrupted her when she was "studying." "Studying" with Elsie
consisted in neither talking yourself, nor letting any other body talk.

The first thing that struck me was how much prettier Elsie was to look
at than Harriet Caw, and, of course, than her sister. I told her so,
thinking that she would be pleased. But instead, she faced about at
once and laid down her book.

"Who is Harriet Caw?" she asked in a kind of icebergy voice, quite
differently pitched from her usual.

Then I began, pleased as a kitten with a wool ball, to tell her all
about it--how Mr. Ablethorpe had come and asked me off for the day from
my father, how we had gone and helped at the haymaking. Then I made
out a long yarn about finding the little package of rings which Mr.
Ablethorpe had taken so carefully away with him.

"But they were more yours than his!" cried Elsie suddenly; "you should
have brought them here to me. Then we would have found out what they
were, and if they had anything to do with the--with Harry Foster. We
were the first who found out anything, and now you go off with Mr.
Ablethorpe----"

"Yes, Elsie," I said, a little taken aback by her tone, "but he seemed
to know all about where to look, and he wouldn't tell me anything,
though I asked."

"No, of course not," said Elsie sharply; "there will be a reward, you
may depend. Then he will get it instead of you!"

I cried out against this, saying that she was not fair to Mr.
Ablethorpe. But at the bottom of my heart I was not a bit sorry. The
Hayfork Minister had such a curly head, and people made such a fuss
about him--especially the women--that I wasn't a bit sorry to find that
Elsie was not of their mind.

This gave me some assurance to go on.

"Well, and what did you do after that?" she said. And I was all on
fire to tell her about the two granddaughters of Caleb Fergusson, w