e gone. Oh, Arthur, how will all the
mouths be fed when you have six or seven children round you?"

"I'll tell you what my plans are. If Adela should accept me--"

"Oh, accept you! She'll accept you fast enough," said Mrs. Wilkinson,
with the venom with which mothers will sometimes speak of the girls
to whom their sons are attached.

"It makes me very happy to hear you say so. But I don't know. When I
did hint at the matter once before, I got no encouragement."

"Psha!" said Mrs. Wilkinson.

This sound was music to her son's ears; so he went on with the more
cheerfulness to describe his plans.

"You see, mother, situated as I am, I have no right to expect any
increase of income, or to hope that I shall ever be better able to
marry than I am now."

"But you might marry a girl who had something to help. There is Miss
Glunter--"

"But it so happens that I am attached to Adela, and not to Miss
Glunter."

"Attached! But, of course, you must have your own way. You are of
age, and I cannot prevent your marrying the cook-maid if you like.
What I want to know is, where do you mean to live?"

"Here, certainly."

"What! in this house?"

"Certainly. I am bound to live here, as the clergyman of the parish."

Mrs. Wilkinson drew herself up to her full height, put her spectacles
on, and looked at the papers before her; then put them off again, and
fixed her eyes on her son. "Do you think there will be room in the
house?" she said. "I fear you would be preparing great discomfort for
Adela. Where on earth would she find room for a nursery? But, Arthur,
you have not thought of these things."

Arthur, however, had thought of them very often. He knew where to
find the nursery, and the room for Adela. His difficulty was as to
the rooms for his mother and sisters. It was necessary now that this
difference of opinion should be explained.

"I suppose that my children, if I have any--"

"Clergymen always have large families," said Mrs. Wilkinson.

"Well, I suppose they'll have the same nursery that we had."

"What, and turn Sophy and Mary out of it!" And then she paused, and
began to rearrange her papers. "That will not do at all, Arthur," she
continued. "It would be unjust in me to allow that; much as I think
of your interests, I must of course think of theirs as well."

How was he to tell her that the house was his own? It was essentially
necessary that he should do so, and that he should do so now. If
he gave up the