is the way in which you would send away your groom, if he had
offended you," he said.

"I do not wish to be unnecessarily harsh," said Mr. Clavering, "and what
I say to you now I say to you not as my curate, but as to a most
unwarranted suitor for my daughter's hand. Of course I cannot turn you
out of the parish at a day's notice. I know that well enough. But your
feelings as a gentleman ought to make you aware that you should go at
once."

"And that is to be my only answer?"

"What answer did you expect?"

"I have been thinking so much lately of the answers I might get from
your daughter, that I have not made other calculations. Perhaps I had no
right to expect any other than that you have now given."

"Of course you had not. And now I ask you again to give her up."

"I shall not do that, certainly."

"Then, Mr. Saul, you must go; and, inconvenient as it will be to
myself--terribly inconvenient--I must ask you to go at once. Of course I
cannot allow you to meet my daughter any more. As long as you remain she
will be debarred from going to her school, and you will be debarred from
coming here."

"If I say that I will not seek her at the school?"

"I will not have it. It is out of the question that you should remain in
the parish. You ought to feel it."

"Mr. Clavering, my going--I mean my instant going--is a matter of which
I have not yet thought. I must consider it before I give you an answer."

"It ought to require no consideration," said Mr. Clavering, rising from
his chair--"none at all; not a moment's. Heavens and earth! Why, what
did you suppose you were to live upon? But I won't discuss it. I will
not say one more word upon a subject which is so distasteful to me. You
must excuse me if I leave you."

Mr. Saul then departed, and from this interview had arisen that state of
things in the parish which had induced Mrs. Clavering to call Harry to
their assistance. The rector had become more energetic on the subject
than any of them had expected. He did not actually forbid his wife to
see Mr. Saul, but he did say that Mr. Saul should not come to the
rectory. Then there arose a question as to the Sunday services, and yet
Mr. Clavering would have no intercourse with his curate. He would have
no intercourse with him unless he would fix an immediate day for going,
or else promise that he would think no more of Fanny. Hitherto he had
done neither, and therefore Mrs. Clavering had sent for her son.

Cha