can't help that. The truth is, you didn't make
enough of her at first, Mr. Gibson. You thought the plum would tumble
into your mouth."

This did seem cruel to the poor man. From the first day in which
the project had been opened to him by Miss Stanbury, he had yielded
a ready acquiescence,--in spite of those ties which he had at
Heavitree,--and had done his very best to fall into her views. "I
don't think that is at all fair, Miss Stanbury," he said, with some
tone of wrath in his voice.

"It's true,--quite true. You always treated her as though she were
something beneath you." Mr. Gibson stood speechless, with his mouth
open. "So you did. I saw it all. And now she's had spirit enough to
resent it. I don't wonder at it; I don't, indeed. It's no good your
standing there any longer. The thing is done."

Such intolerable ill-usage Mr. Gibson had never suffered in his life.
Had he been untrue, or very nearly untrue, to those dear girls at
Heavitree for this? "I never treated her as anything beneath me," he
said at last.

"Yes, you did. Do you think that I don't understand? Haven't I eyes
in my head, and ears? I'm not deaf yet, nor blind. But there's an
end of it. If any young woman ever meant anything, she means it. The
truth is, she don't like you."

Was ever a lover despatched in so uncourteous a way! Then, too, he
had been summoned thither as a lover, had been specially encouraged
to come there as a lover, had been assured of success in a peculiar
way, had had the plum actually offered to him! He had done all that
this old woman had bidden him,--something, indeed, to the prejudice
of his own heart; he had been told that the wife was ready for
him; and now, because this foolish young woman didn't know her own
mind,--this was Mr. Gibson's view of the matter,--he was reviled
and abused, and told that he had behaved badly to the lady. "Miss
Stanbury," he said, "I think that you are forgetting yourself."

"Highty, tighty!" said Miss Stanbury. "Forgetting myself! I shan't
forget you in a hurry, Mr. Gibson."

"Nor I you, Miss Stanbury. Good morning, Miss Stanbury." Mr. Gibson,
as he went from the hall-door into the street, shook the dust off his
feet, and resolved that for the future he and Miss Stanbury should be
two. There would arise great trouble in Exeter, but, nevertheless, he
and Miss Stanbury must be two. He could justify himself in no other
purpose after such conduct as he had received.

CHAPTER XLIII.