leasant to hear. At another
moment an accusation so ridiculous would have troubled him very little;
but just now, with a sudden gleam of insight, he saw all the
complications which might spring out of it to confuse further the path
which he already felt to be so burdened. "I'll tell you what,
Elsworthy," said Mr Wentworth; "if you don't want to make me your enemy
instead of your friend, you'll send for this child instantly, without a
day's delay. Tell your wife that my orders are that she should come back
directly. _My_ feelings! do the people in Carlingford think me an idiot,
I wonder?" said the Curate, walking up and down to relieve his mind.

"I don't know, sir, I'm sure," said Elsworthy, who thought some answer
was required of him. To tell the truth, Rosa's uncle felt a little
spiteful. He did not see matters in exactly the same light as Mr
Wentworth did. At the bottom of his heart, after all, lay a thrill of
awakened ambition. Kings and princes had been known to marry far out
of their degree for the sake of a beautiful face; and why a Perpetual
Curate should be so much more lofty in his sentiments, puzzled and
irritated the clerk of St Roque's. "There aint a worm but will turn
when he's trod upon," said Mr Elsworthy to himself; and when his
temper was roused, he became impertinent, according to the manner of
his kind.

Mr Wentworth gave him a quick look, struck by the changed tone, but
unable to make out whether it might not be stupidity. "You understand
what I mean, Elsworthy," he said, with his loftiest air. "If Rosa does
not return instantly, I shall be seriously offended. How you and your
friends could be such utter idiots as to get up this ridiculous
fiction, I can't conceive; but the sooner it's over the better. I
expect to see her back to-morrow," said the Curate, taking up his bag
and looking with an absolute despotism, which exasperated the man, in
Elsworthy's face.

"You may be sure, sir, if she knows as you want to see her, she'll
come," said the worm which had been trampled on; "and them as asks me
why, am I to say it was the clergyman's orders?" said Elsworthy,
looking up in his turn with a consciousness of power. "That means a
deal, does that. I wouldn't take it upon me to say as much, not of
myself; but if them's your orders, Mr Wentworth--"

"It appears to me, Elsworthy," said the Curate, who was inwardly in a
towering passion, though outwardly calm enough, "either that you've
been drinking or