nd was
small and solemn, and he had worn three straight and unyielding wrinkles
across his forehead in his earnest endeavour to prevent people from
acting, and especially from thinking, lightly. This sedulous devotion to
the public morals kept him not only a trifle spare in figure, but lent
an habitual manner of divine authority to his most trivial utterance.
His head, seen from the rear, was a little flat, but this, fortunately,
did not show in the pulpit--where at the age of twenty-four his
eloquence enraptured his congregation.

"I postponed my visit to Applegate until to-morrow," he said, when
he had given her what he thought was sufficient time to recover her
composure. "If you are returning shortly, perhaps I may have the
pleasure of driving you in my gig. I have just come to inquire after
Mrs. Hatch."

"It would be kind of you, for I am a little tired," responded Molly.
"I came to speak to Judy, and then I am to stop at the mill to borrow a
pattern from Blossom Revercomb. Are you going that way, I wonder?"

"I shall make it my way," he replied gallantly, "as soon as you are
ready. Don't hurry, I beg of you. It is gratifying to me to find that
you have so soon taken my advice and devoted a portion of your days to
visiting the sick and the afflicted."

With her back discreetly turned upon Judy, she looked up at him for a
moment, and something in her eyes rendered unnecessary the words that
fell slowly and softly from her lips.

"You give such good advice, Mr. Mullen."

A boyish eagerness showed in his face, breaking through the professional
austerity of his manner.

"I hope you've advised Judy this morning," she added before he could
answer.

"To the best of my ability," he replied gravely. "And now, as I have
said before, there is no hurry, but if you are quite ready, I should
suggest our starting."

"Just a word or two with Judy," she answered, and when the words were
spoken in the doorway she laid her hand in the rector's and mounted,
with his scrupulous assistance, over the red wheel to the shining black
seat of the gig, which smelt of leather and varnish. After he had taken
his place beside her he tucked in the laprobe carefully at the corners,
rearranged the position of his overcoat at her back, and suggested that
she should put the bottle of cough syrup in the bottom of the vehicle.

Like all his attentions, this solicitude about the cough syrup had an
air that was at once amorous and ministeria