ctless; but in the
tossings of his natural impatience the young man had felt the reins
hang loosely about his head, and knew that he was no more restrained
than other men, but might, if he chose it, have his way like the rest
of the world. It was true enough that he might have to pay for it
after, as other people had done; but in the mean time the sense that
he was his own master was sweet, and to have his will for once seemed
no more than his right in the world. While these rebellious thoughts
were going on in the Curate's mind, his father, who suspected nothing,
went steadily by his side, not without a little reluctance at the
thought of the errand on which he was bound. "But they can't marry for
years, and nobody can tell what may happen in that time," Mr Wentworth
said to himself, with the callousness of mature age, not suspecting
the different ideas that were afloat in the mind of his son. Perhaps,
on the whole, he was not sorry that Skelmersdale was destined
otherwise, and that Huxtable had been spoken to about Wentworth
Rectory; for, of course, Frank would have plunged into marriage at
once if he had been possessed of anything to marry on; and it looked
providential under the circumstances, as the Squire argued with
himself privately, that at such a crisis the Perpetual Curate should
have fallen between two stools of possible preferment, and should
still be obliged to content himself with St Roque's. It was hard for
Mr Wentworth to reconcile himself to the idea that the wife of his
favourite son should be the sister of--; for the Squire forgot that
his own girls were Jack Wentworth's sisters, and as such might be
objected to in their turn by some other father. So the two gentlemen
went to see Lucy, who was then in a very humble frame of mind, just
recovered from her passion--one of them rather congratulating himself
on the obstacles which lay before the young couple, the other tossing
his youthful head a little in the first impulses of self-will, feeling
the reins lie loose upon him, and making up his mind to have his own
way.

CHAPTER XLV.

While Mr Frank Wentworth's affairs were thus gathering to a crisis,
other events likely to influence his fate were also taking place in
Carlingford. Breakfast had been served a full half-hour later than
usual in the Rectory, which had not improved the temper of the
household. Everything was going on with the most wonderful quietness
in that well-arranged house; but