nt. There is a very excellent young man, the curate of the
parish, whom Julia Trench is to be married to. By the way, of course,
this must put it off; but I was about to say, when you interrupted me,
that to give it away from you at this moment, just as you had been
doing well--doing--your duty," said Miss Leonora, with unusual
hesitation, "was certainly very uncomfortable, to say the least, to
us."

"Don't let that have the slightest influence on you, I beg," cried the
Perpetual Curate, with all the pride of his years. "I hope I have been
doing my duty all along," the young man added, more softly, a moment
after; upon which the Squire gave a little nod, partly of satisfaction
and encouragement to his son--partly of remonstrance and protest to
his sister.

"Yes, I suppose so--with the flowers at Easter, for example," said
Miss Leonora, with a slight sneer. "I consider that I have stood by
you through all this business, Frank--but, of course, in so important
a matter as a cure of souls, neither relationship, nor, to a certain
extent, approval," said Miss Leonora, with again some hesitation, "can
be allowed to stand against public duty. We have the responsibility of
providing a good gospel minister--"

"I beg your pardon for interrupting you, Leonora," said the Squire,
"but I can't help thinking that you make a mistake. I think it's a
man's bounden duty, when there is a living in the family, to educate
one of his sons for it. In my opinion, it's one of the duties of
property. You have no right to live off your estate, and spend your
money elsewhere; and no more have you any right to give less
than--than your own flesh and blood to the people you have the charge
of. You've got the charge of them to--to a certain extent--soul and
body, sir," said the Squire, growing warm, as he put down his 'Times,'
and forgetting that he addressed a lady. "I'd never have any peace of
mind if I filled up a family living with a stranger--unless, of
course," Mr Wentworth added in a parenthesis--an unlikely sort of
contingency which had not occurred to him at first--"you should happen
to have no second son.--The eldest the squire, the second the rector.
That's my idea, Leonora, of Church and State."

Miss Leonora smiled a little at her brother's semi-feudal, semi-pagan
ideas. "I have long known that we were not of the same way of thinking,"
said the strong-minded aunt, who, though cleverer than her brother, was
too wise in her own conceit