ld take her next Sunday to see Mr. Carr's garden; for it seems the
gentleman had invited them to look at his flowers. I had tried my best,
when I heard it, to persuade my brother not to accept the invitation and
let her scrape acquaintance with a stranger under her father's own nose;
but all that I could say was useless now. She had got the better of me,
and when I put in my word, she had her bold laugh and her light answer
ready to insult me with directly. Her father said he wondered I was not
amused at her high spirits. I shook my head, but said nothing in return.
Poor man! he lived to see where her 'high spirits' led her to.

"On the Sunday, after church, they went to Mr. Carr's. Though my advice
was set at defiance in this way, I determined to persevere in keeping a
stricter watch over my niece than ever. I felt that the maintaining the
credit and reputation of the family rested with me, and I determined
that I would try my best to uphold our good name. It is some little
comfort to me, after all that has happened, to remember that I did my
utmost to carry out this resolution. The blame of our dishonor lies not
at my door. I disliked and distrusted Mr. Carr from the very first; and
I tried hard to make others as suspicious of him as I was. But all
I could say, and all I could do, availed nothing against the wicked
cunning of my niece. Watch and restrain her as I might, she was sure--"

(Once more Mat broke off abruptly in the middle of a sentence. This
time, however, it was to strike a light. The brief day of winter was
fast fading out--the coming darkness was deepening over the pages of
Joanna Grice's narrative. When he had lit his candle, and had sat down
to read again, he lost his place, and, not having patience to look for
it carefully, went on at once with the first lines that happened to
strike his eye.)

"Things were now come, then, to this pass, that I felt certain she was
in the habit of meeting him in secret; and yet I could not prove it to
my brother's satisfaction. I had no help that I could call in to assist
me against the diabolical cunning that was used to deceive me. To set
other people to watch them, when I could not, would only have been
spreading through Dibbledean the very scandal that I was most anxious to
avoid. As for Joshua, his infatuation made him deaf to all that I could
urge. He would see nothing suspicious in the fondness Mary had suddenly
taken for Botany, and drawing flowers. He le