lways goes
tearin' round on the back of that 'ere grey horse, I thought. I never
see a minister ride so afore; and I don't _think_, Mis' Starling, it's
suitable. What if he was to break his neck, on the way to visit some
sick man?"

"Jim Treadwell broke _his_ neck out of a waggon," responded Mrs.
Starling.

"Ah, well! there ain't no security, no place; but don't it strike you,
now, Mis' Starling, that a minister had ought to set an example of
steady goin', and not turn the heads of the young men, and young women,
with his capers?"

"He is a young man himself, Mrs. Flandin," Diana was bold to say.

"Wall--I know he is," said the lady in a disapproving way. "I know he
is; and he can't help it; but if I had my way, I'd allays have a
minister as much as fifty year old. It looks better," said Mrs. Flandin
complacently; "and it _is_ better."

"What is he to do all the first fifty years of his life then?"

"Wall, my dear, I hain't got the arrangement of things; I don't know. I
know Will would hitch up and carry you anywheres you want to go--if
it's a waggon you want any time."

After that, Will made good his mother's promise, so far as intentions
went. He was generally on hand when anything was to be done in which
himself and his smart buggy could be useful. Indeed, he was very often
on hand at other times; dropping in after supper, and appearing with
baskets, which were found to contain some of the Flandin pears or the
fine red apples that grew in a corner of the lot, and were famous. Some
of his own bees' honey Will brought another time, and a bushel of
uncommonly fine nuts. Of course this was in the fall, to which the
weary weeks of Diana's summer had at length dragged themselves out. But
if Will hoped that honey would sweeten Diana's reception of him and his
attentions, as yet it did not seem to have the desired effect. In
truth, though Will could never suspect it, her brain was so heavy with
other thoughts that she was only in a vague and general way conscious
of his presence; and of his officious gallantries scarcely aware. So
little aware, indeed, of their bearing, that on two or three occasions
she suffered herself to be conveyed in Will's buggy to or from some
gathering of the neighbours; Mrs. Starling or Mrs. Flandin had arranged
it, and Diana had quite blindly fallen into the trap. And then the
young man, not unreasonably elated and inspirited, began to make his
visits to Mrs. Starling's house more frequent