ntedly. Of course I'll call as soon as I can in decency; she may
let me be of use to her. Oh, bother Mrs. Venables! If she doesn't call,
no doubt many others won't; you must remember that he has never
entertained as yet. Oh, what a dance they could give! And did you hear
what she said about his age? He is sixty-five, now!"

The vicar laughed. It was his habit to let his young wife rattle on when
they were alone, and even lay down the law for him to her heart's
content; but, though fifteen years her senior, and never a vivacious
man himself, there was much in their life that he saw in the same light
as she did, though never quite so soon.

"Sixty-five!" he suddenly repeated, with a fresh chuckle; "and last
year, when Sybil was thought to be in the running--poor Sybil, how well
she took it!--last year her mother told me she knew for a fact he was
not a day more than five-and-forty! Poor Steel, too! He has done for
them both in that quarter, I am afraid. And now," added Hugh, in his
matter-of-fact way, as though they had been discussing theology all this
time, "I must go back to my sermon if I am to get it done to-night."

CHAPTER X

A SLIGHT DISCREPANCY

Mrs. Woodgate paid the promised call a few days later, walking briskly
by herself along the woodland path that made it no distance from Marley
Vicarage to Normanthorpe House, and cutting a very attractive figure
among the shimmering lights and shadows of the trees. She was rather
tall, and very straight, with the pale brown skin and the dark brown
eye, which, more especially when associated with hair as light as Morna
Woodgate's, go to make up one of the most charming and distinctive types
of English womanhood. Morna, moreover, took a healthy interest in her
own appearance, and had not only the good taste to dress well, but the
good sense not to dress too well. Her new coat and skirt had just come
home, and, fawn-colored like herself, they fitted and suited her to
equal perfection. Morna thought that she might even go to church in the
coat and skirt, now and again during the summer, and she had a brown
straw hat with fine feathers of the lighter shade which she made
peculiarly her own; but this she had discarded as too grand for an
informal call, for Hugh had been summoned to a sick-bed at the last
moment, and might be detained too late to follow. But the Steels had
been back two days, and Morna could not wait another hour.

She was certainly consumed with c