absence and come over
and meet him at the Clock House. Dorothy demanded the leave of
absence somewhat imperiously, and was at home at the Clock House when
Hugh arrived.

"And so that little affair couldn't come off?" said Hugh at their
first family meeting.

"It was a pity," said Mrs. Stanbury, plaintively. She had been very
plaintive on the subject. What a thing it would have been for her,
could she have seen Dorothy so well established!

"There's no help for spilt milk, mother," said Hugh. Mrs. Stanbury
shook her head.

"Dorothy was quite right," said Priscilla.

"Of course she was right," said Hugh. "Who doubts her being right?
Bless my soul! What's any girl to do if she don't like a man except
to tell him so? I honour you, Dolly,--not that I ever should have
doubted you. You're too much of a chip of the old block to say you
liked a man when you didn't."

"He is a very excellent young man," said Mrs. Stanbury.

"An excellent fiddlestick, mother. Loving and liking don't go by
excellence. Besides, I don't know about his being any better than
anybody else, just because he's a clergyman."

"A clergyman is more likely to be steady than other men," said the
mother.

"Steady, yes; and as selfish as you please."

"Your father was a clergyman, Hugh."

"I don't mean to say that they are not as good as others; but I won't
have it that they are better. They are always dealing with the Bible,
till they think themselves apostles. But when money comes up, or
comfort, or, for the matter of that either, a pretty woman with a
little money, then they are as human as the rest of us."

If the truth had been told on that occasion, Hugh Stanbury would have
had to own that he had written lately two or three rather stinging
articles in the "Daily Record," as "to the assumed merits and actual
demerits of the clergy of the Church of England." It is astonishing
how fluent a man is on a subject when he has lately delivered himself
respecting it in this fashion.

Nothing on that evening was said about the Clock House, or about
Priscilla's intentions. Priscilla was up early on the next morning,
intending to discuss it in the garden with Hugh before breakfast; but
Hugh was aware of her purpose and avoided her. It was his intention
to speak first to his mother; and though his mother was, as he knew,
very much in awe of her daughter, he thought that he might carry his
point, at any rate for the next three months, by forcing an assen