d, and showed himself
at the drawing-room window, without going round to the front door. "I
never go to the front now," said Mrs. Fenwick; "I have only once been
through the gate since they began to build."

"Is not that very inconvenient?"

"Of course it is. When we came home from dining at Sir Thomas's the
other day, I had myself put down at the church gate, and walked all
the way round, though it was nearly pitch dark. Do come in, Harry."

[Illustration: "Do come in, Harry."]

Then Mr. Gilmore came in, and seated himself before the fire. Mrs.
Fenwick understood his moods so well, that she would not say a word
to hurry him. If he chose to talk about Mary Lowther, she knew very
well what she would say to him; but she would not herself introduce
the subject. She spoke for awhile about the Brattles, saying that the
old man had suffered much since his son had gone from him. Sam had
left Bullhampton at the end of January, never having returned to the
mill after his visit to the Vicar, and had not been heard of since.
Gilmore, however, had not been to see his tenant; and though he
expressed an interest about the Brattles, had manifestly come to
the Vicarage with the object of talking upon matters more closely
interesting to himself.

"Did you write to Loring, Mrs. Fenwick?" he asked at last.

"I wrote to Mary soon after you were last here."

"And has she answered you?"

"Yes; she wrote again almost at once. She could not but write, as I
had said so much to her about the chapel."

"She did not allude to--anything else, then?"

"I can't quite say that, Harry. I had written to her out of a
very full heart, telling her what I thought as to her future life
generally, and just alluding to our wishes respecting you."

"Well?"

"She said just what might have been expected,--that for the present
she would rather be let alone."

"I have let her alone. I have neither spoken to her nor written to
her. She does not mean to say that I have troubled her?"

"Of course you have not troubled her,--but she knows what we all
mean."

"I have waited all the winter, Mrs. Fenwick, and have said not a
word. How long was it that she knew her cousin before she was engaged
to him?"

"What has that to do with it? You know what our wishes are; but,
indeed, indeed, nothing can be done by hurrying her."

"She was engaged to that man, and the engagement broken off all
within a month. It was no more than a dream."

"But the reme