nnison about her, and I was quite upset when Dolph tweaked my
elbow and made signals of distress at poor Mr. Brenton who was standing
near us. If he is as thin-skinned as he looks, poor man, it must be
rather hard to go into a new parish and watch the people getting
accustomed to his wife."

"He brought it on himself," the doctor said, with scanty charity.

"And he has also brought it upon us," Olive assented grimly. "Still, if
you say so, I will write to Mrs. Dennison that we will come. You'll not
forget? In the meantime, I'll raise my eben-ezer of devout thanksgiving
that I'm a girl and therefore can't possibly sit next to Mrs. Brenton
at the table. I only hope that honour will descend on you."

And it did.

Moreover, in the talk which followed on the being seated, it was Catia
who took the initiative. She was affable, as befitted her husband's
lofty rank, sprightly, as seemed considerate of the great age of the
man beside her. Both attributes were a little bit intensified by her
complete pleasure in her frock. It had come by express from New York,
that day, ordered by a picture in a catalogue. The box that held it was
adorned with a mammoth scarlet star, and the scheme of decoration of
the frock was wholly consonant with the star. Catia had ordered it in
hot haste, in deference to a rumour which had drifted to her ears,
outstretched in readiness for all such rumours, that, even in that
relatively small community, it was the custom to put on low-necked
frocks for dinner. It was the first time that Catia had worn a
low-necked frock; but she did not find it disconcerting in the least.
It did disconcert Brenton very much, however. Its abbreviated bodice
did not fit in with his notions of what was seemly for a rector's wife;
moreover, to the end of time, he never could find any great degree of
beauty in a woman's shoulder-blades.

Brenton himself was in his plain clerical costume from which, nowadays,
he made it his rule never to depart. It was a slightly different
costume from the one he had worn at first, more distinctly clerical.
Even in the morning, when it descended to the worldly level of a
subdued species of pepper-and-salt, it always opened chiefly in the
back, and a plain silver cross invariably dangled from a cord about his
neck. As a matter of course, he always kept himself clean-shaven; and
his scholarly stoop endured still, although the old, self-distrustful
shamble had strengthened into a manly stride.