, Miss Carmichael! It was a pity they had heard so little!
He would have gone on if only Sophy had had patience and held her
peace! Perhaps he might have spoken better things if she had not
interfered! It would hardly be fair to condemn him upon so little! He
had said that he believed every word of the New Testament--or something
very like it!

"I have heard enough!" said Miss Carmichael: "I will speak to my father
at once."

The next day Donal received a note to the following effect:--

"Sir, in consequence of what I felt bound to report to my father of the
conversation we had yesterday, he desires that you will call upon him
at your earliest convenience He is generally at home from three to
five. Yours truly, Sophia Agnes Carmichael."

To this Donal immediately replied:--

"Madam, notwithstanding the introduction I brought him from another
clergyman, your father declined my acquaintance, passing me afterwards
as one unknown to him. From this fact, and from the nature of the
report which your behaviour to me yesterday justifies me in supposing
you must have carried to him, I can hardly mistake his object in
wishing to see me. I will attend the call of no man to defend my
opinions; your father's I have heard almost every Sunday since I came
to the castle, and have been from childhood familiar with them. Yours
truly, Donal Grant."

Not a word more came to him from either of them. When they happened to
meet, Miss Carmichael took no more notice of him than her father.

But she impressed it upon the mind of her friend that, if unable to
procure his dismission, she ought at least to do what she could to
protect her cousin from the awful consequences of such false teaching:
if she was present, he would not say such things as he would in her
absence, for it was plain he was under restraint with her! She might
even have some influence with him if she would but take courage to show
him where he was wrong! Or she might find things such that her uncle
must see the necessity of turning him away; as the place belonged to
her, he would never go dead against her! She did not see that that was
just the thing to fetter the action of a delicate-minded girl.

Continually haunted, however, with the feeling that she ought to do
something, lady Arctura felt as if she dared not absent herself from
the lesson, however disagreeable it might prove: that much she could
do! Upon the next occasion, therefore, she appeared in t