as Mr. Bartholomew Burgess in Exeter.

At this time Brooke Burgess was a man just turned thirty, and was
a clerk in the Ecclesiastical Record Office, in Somerset House. No
doubt the peculiar nature and name of the public department to which
he was attached had done something to recommend him to Miss Stanbury.
Ecclesiastical records were things greatly to be reverenced in her
eyes, and she felt that a gentleman who handled them and dealt with
them would probably be sedate, gentlemanlike, and conservative.
Brooke Burgess, when she had last seen him, was just about to enter
upon the duties of the office. Then there had come offence, and she
had in truth known nothing of him from that day to this. The visitor
was to be at Exeter on the following Monday, and very much was done
in preparation of his coming. There was to be a dinner party on that
very day, and dinner parties were not common with Miss Stanbury. She
had, however, explained to Martha that she intended to put her best
foot forward. Martha understood perfectly that Mr. Brooke Burgess
was to be received as the heir of property. Sir Peter Mancrudy, the
great Devonshire chemist, was coming to dinner, and Mr. and Mrs.
Powel from Haldon,--people of great distinction in that part of the
county,--Mrs. MacHugh of course; and, equally of course, Mr. Gibson.
There was a deep discussion between Miss Stanbury and Martha
as to asking two of the Cliffords, and Mr. and Mrs. Noel from
Doddiscombeleigh. Martha had been very much in favour of having
twelve. Miss Stanbury had declared that with twelve she must have two
waiters from the greengrocer's, and that two waiters would overpower
her own domesticities below stairs. Martha had declared that she
didn't care about them any more than if they were puppy dogs. But
Miss Stanbury had been quite firm against twelve. She had consented
to have ten,--for the sake of artistic arrangement at the table;
"They should be pantaloons and petticoats alternate, you know," she
had said to Martha,--and had therefore asked the Cliffords. But the
Cliffords could not come, and then she had declined to make any
further attempt. Indeed, a new idea had struck her. Brooke Burgess,
her guest, should sit at one end of the table, and Mr. Gibson, the
clergyman, at the other. In this way the proper alternation would be
effected. When Martha heard this, Martha quite understood the extent
of the good fortune that was in store for Dorothy. If Mr. Gibson was
to b