her mind by turning Mr. Gibson into ridicule in her
description to Brooke of the manner in which the clergyman had
carried on his love affair; and she had at the same time declared
that Mr. Gibson had been most violently impertinent to herself. He
knew, therefore, that Miss Stanbury and Mr. Gibson had become two,
and would on this occasion have passed on without a word relative
to the old lady had Mr. Gibson allowed him to do so. But Mr. Gibson
spoke his mind freely.

"Off to-morrow, are you?" he said. "Good-bye. I hope we may meet
again; but not in the same house, Mr. Burgess."

"There or anywhere I shall be very happy," said Brooke.

"Not there, certainly. While you were absent Miss Stanbury treated me
in such a way that I shall certainly never put my foot in her house
again."

"Dear me! I thought that you and she were such great friends."

"I knew her very well, of course;--and respected her. She is a good
churchwoman, and is charitable in the city; but she has got such a
tongue in her head that there is no bearing it when she does what she
calls giving you a bit of her mind."

"She has been indulgent to me, and has not given me much of it."

"Your time will come, I've no doubt," continued Mr. Gibson.
"Everybody has always told me that it would be so. Even her oldest
friends knew it. You ask Mrs. MacHugh, or Mrs. French, at Heavitree."

"Mrs. French!" said Brooke, laughing. "That would hardly be fair
evidence."

"Why not? I don't know a better judge of character in all Exeter than
Mrs. French. And she and Miss Stanbury have been intimate all their
lives. Ask your uncle at the bank."

"My uncle and Miss Stanbury never were friends," said Brooke.

"Ask Hugh Stanbury what he thinks of her. But don't suppose I want
to say a word against her. I wouldn't for the world do such a thing.
Only, as we've met there and all that, I thought it best to let you
know that she had treated me in such a way, and has been altogether
so violent, that I never will go there again." So saying, Mr.
Gibson passed on, and was of opinion that he had spoken with great
generosity of the old woman who had treated him so badly.

In the afternoon Brooke Burgess went over to the further end of the
Close, and called on Mrs. MacHugh; and from thence he walked across
to Heavitree, and called on the Frenches. It may be doubted whether
he would have been so well behaved to these ladies had they not been
appealed to by Mr. Gibson as witnesses