not seen him, and who are so much more suspicious by nature (I don't
know that you are, my dear Mrs. Dennistoun), would give me no rest. They
thought it was my duty to interfere. But I am sure they are quite
wrong."

To think that it was the ladies of the Rector's family who were
interfering made Mrs. Dennistoun very wroth. "Next time they have
anything to say, you should make them come themselves," she said.

"Oh, they would not do that. They say it is the clergyman's business,
not theirs. Besides, you know, I have not time to read all the papers.
We get the _Times_, and Mary Dale has the _Morning Post_, and another
thing that is all about stocks and shares. She has such a head for
business--far more than I can pretend to. She thought----"

"Mr. Hudson, I fear I do not wish to know what was thought by Miss
Dale."

"Well, you are, perhaps, right, Mrs. Dennistoun. She is only a woman,
of course, and she may make mistakes. It is astonishing, though, how
often she is right. She has a head for business that might do for a
Chancellor of the Exchequer. She made me sell out my shares in that Red
Gulch--those American investments have most horrible names--just a week
before the smash came, all from what she had read in the papers. She
knows how to put things together, you see. So I have reason to be
grateful to her, for my part."

"And what persuaded you, here at Windyhill, a quiet clergyman, to put
money in any Red Gulch? It is a horrible name!"

"Oh, it was Mary, I suppose," said Mr. Hudson. "She is always looking
out for new investments. She said we should all make our fortunes. We
did not, unfortunately. But she is so clever, she got us out of it with
only a very small loss indeed."

"No doubt she is very clever. I wish, though, that she would let us know
definitely on what ground----"

"Oh, there is no ground," cried the Rector. "Now that I have seen Mr.
Compton I am certain of it. I said to her before I left the Rectory,
'Now, my dear Mary, I am going like a lamb to the slaughter. I have no
reason to give if Mrs. Dennistoun should ask me, and you have no reason
to give. And she will probably put me to the door.' If I said that
before I started, you may fancy how much more I feel it now, when I have
made Mr. Compton's acquaintance. A fine aristocratic face, and all the
ease of high breeding. There are only three lives--and those not very
good ones--between him and the title, I believe?"

"Two robust brothers,