ccepted lover. Is that it, Fanny?"

"Yes, mamma."

"Then he must go, I suppose. What else can any of us say? I shall be
sorry both for his sake and for your papa's." Mrs. Clavering, as she
said this, looked at her daughter, and saw at once that this edict on
her part did not settle the difficulty. There was that in Fanny's face
which showed trouble and the necessity of further explanation. "Is not
that what you think yourself my dear?" Mrs. Clavering asked.

"I should be very sorry if he had to leave the parish on my account."

"We all shall feel that, dearest; but what can we do? I presume you
don't wish him to remain as your lover?"

"I don't know, mamma," said Fanny.

It was then as Mrs. Clavering had feared. Indeed, from the first word
that Fanny had spoken on the present occasion, she had almost been sure
of the facts, as they now were. To her father it would appear wonderful
that his daughter should have come to love such a man as Mr. Saul, but
Mrs. Clavering knew better than he how far perseverance will go with
women--perseverance joined with high mental capacity, and with high
spirit to back it. She was grieved but not surprised, and would at once
have accepted the idea of Mr. Saul becoming her son-in-law, had not the
poverty of the man been so much against him. "Do you mean, my dear, that
you wish him to remain here after what he has said to you? That would be
tantamount to accepting him. You understand that, Fanny; eh, dear?"

"I suppose it would, mamma."

"And is that what you mean? Come, dearest, tell me the whole of it. What
have you said to him yourself? What has he been led to think from the
answer you have given him to-day?"

"He says that he means to see papa to-morrow."

"But is he to see him with your consent?" Fanny had hitherto placed
herself in the nook of a bow-window which looked out into the garden,
and there, though she was near to the dressing-table at which her mother
was sitting, she could so far screen herself as almost to hide her face
when she was speaking. From this retreat her mother found it necessary
to withdraw her; so she rose, and going to a sofa in the room, bade her
daughter come and sit beside her. "A doctor, my dear, can never do any
good," she said, "unless the patient will tell him everything. Have you
told Mr. Saul that he may see papa--as coming from you, you know?"

"No, mamma; I did not tell him that. I told him that it would be
altogether impossible, because