of delight to Nuttie, and she
could not be greatly concerned at the occasion of it; but she did not
find the Rectory in a condition to converse and sympathise. Blanche
was lying down with a bad headache. The Edwardses and a whole party of
semi-genteel parish visitors had come in to inquire about the accident,
and had to be entertained with afternoon tea; and May, though helping
her stepmother to do her devoir towards them, seemed more preoccupied
than ever.

As indeed she was, for she knew that Mark was putting his fate to the
touch with his father in the study.

The Canon heard the proposal with utter consternation and dismay at the
perverseness of the two young people, who might have been engaged any
time these two years with the full approbation of their families, and
now chose the very moment when every one was rejoicing at their freedom.

'When a young man has got into a pickle,' he said, 'the first thing is
to want to be married!'

'Exactly so, sir, to give him a motive for getting out of the pickle.'

'Umbrellas! I should like to hear what your grandfather would have
said!'

'These are not my grandfather's days, sir.'

'No indeed! There was nothing to do but to give a hint to old Lord de
Lyonnais, and he could get you put into any berth you chose. Interest
was interest in those days! I don't see why Kirkaldy can't do the
same.'

'Not unless I had foreign languages at my tongue's end.'

Whereat the Canon groaned, and Mark had to work again through all the
difficulties in the way of the more liberal professions; and the upshot
was that his father agreed to drive over to Lescombe the next day and
see Lady Ronnisglen. He certainly had always implicitly trusted his
son's veracity, but he evidently thought that there must have been much
warping of the imagination to make the young man believe the old
Scottish peeress to have consented to her daughter's marrying into an
umbrella factory.

Nuttie was surprised and gratified that both Mark and May put her
through an examination on the habits of Micklethwayte and the position
of Mr. Godfrey, which she thought was entirely due to the favourable
impression Gerard had produced, and she felt proportionably proud of
him when Mark pronounced him a very nice gentlemanly young fellow. She
could not think why her uncle, with more testiness than she had ever
seen in that good-natured dignitary, ordered May not to stand
chattering there, but to give them some mus