n of
that sort," she said, "think it a fine thing, and talk about it. I
believe the poor girl is as innocent as I am, but he isn't innocent.
He likes it."

"'It is easier,'" said Mr. Outhouse solemnly, "'for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom
of God.'"

"I don't know that he is a rich man," said Mrs. Outhouse; "but he
wouldn't have come here if he had been honest."

Mrs. Trevelyan was told of the visit, and simply said that of course
it was out of the question that she should have seen Colonel Osborne.
Nevertheless she seemed to think it quite natural that he should have
called, and defended him with some energy when her aunt declared that
he had been much to blame. "He is not bound to obey Mr. Trevelyan
because I am," said Emily.

"He is bound to abstain from evil doing," said Mrs. Outhouse; "and he
oughtn't to have come. There; let that be enough, my dear. Your uncle
doesn't wish to have it talked about." Nevertheless it was talked
about between the two sisters. Nora was of opinion that Colonel
Osborne had been wrong, whereas Emily defended him. "It seems to me
to have been the most natural thing in life," said she.

Had Colonel Osborne made the visit as Sir Marmaduke's friend, feeling
himself to be an old man, it might have been natural. When a man has
come to regard himself as being, on the score of age, about as fit to
be a young lady's lover as though he were an old woman instead of an
old man,--which some men will do when they are younger even than was
Colonel Osborne,--he is justified in throwing behind him as utterly
absurd the suspicions of other people. But Colonel Osborne cannot be
defended altogether on that plea.

CHAPTER XLII.

MISS STANBURY AND MR. GIBSON BECOME TWO.

There came to be a very gloomy fortnight at Miss Stanbury's house
in the Close. For two or three days after Mr. Gibson's dismissal at
the hands of Miss Stanbury herself, Brooke Burgess was still in the
house, and his presence saved Dorothy from the full weight of her
aunt's displeasure. There was the necessity of looking after Brooke,
and scolding him, and of praising him to Martha, and of dispraising
him, and of seeing that he had enough to eat, and of watching whether
he smoked in the house, and of quarrelling with him about everything
under the sun, which together so employed Miss Stanbury that she
satisfied herself with glances at Dorothy which were felt to be full
of