to Markland every day?" she said.
"Isn't it a great tie? I should think by the time you have ridden there
and back you can't have much time for any business of your own."

"It is a good thing, then," said Theo, "that I have so little business
of my own."

"You say so," said the rector's wife, "but most gentlemen make fuss
enough about it, I am sure. There seems always something to be
doing when you have an estate in your hands. And now that you are a
magistrate--though I know you did _not_ go to Quarter Sessions," she
said severely.

"There are always enough of men who like to play at law, without me."

"Oh, Theo, how can you speak so? when it is one of a gentleman's highest
functions, as everybody knows! And then there are the improvements. So
much was to be done. The girls could talk of nothing else. They were in
a panic about their trees. There is no stauncher Conservative than I
am," said Mrs. Wilberforce, "but I do think Minnie went too far. She
would have everything remain exactly as it is. Now I can't help seeing
that those trees---- But you have no time to think of trees or anything
else," she added briskly, fixing upon him her keen eyes.

"I confess," said Theo, "I never thought of the trees from a political
point of view."

"There, that is just like a man!" cried Mrs. Wilberforce. "You seize
upon something one says that can be turned into ridicule; but you never
will meet the real question. Oh, is that you, Herbert? Have you got rid
of your churchwarden so soon?"--for this was the pretext upon which the
rector had been got out of the way.

"He did not want much,--a mere question. Indeed," said the rector,
remembering that fibs are not permitted to the clergy any more than to
the mere laic, and perceiving that he must expect his punishment all the
same--with that courage which springs from the conviction that it is as
well to be hanged for a sheep as for a lamb, "it was not the
churchwarden at all; it was only a mistake of John."

"Well," said his wife significantly, "it was a mistake that was quickly
rectified, one can see, as you have come back so soon. And here is Theo
talking already of going home. Of course he has his lessons to prepare
for to-morrow; he is not a mere idle gentleman now."

Little gibes and allusions like these rained upon the young man from all
quarters during the first six months, but no one ventured to speak to
him with the faithfulness used by Mrs. Wilberforce; and after a tim