ed
her the trouble by depositing herself therein--the Misses Sykes replied
to Caroline by one simultaneous bow, very majestic and mighty awful. A
pause followed. This bow was of a character to ensure silence for the
next five minutes, and it did. Mrs. Sykes then inquired after Mr.
Helstone, and whether he had had any return of rheumatism, and whether
preaching twice on a Sunday fatigued him, and if he was capable of
taking a full service now; and on being assured he was, she and all her
daughters, combining in chorus, expressed their opinion that he was "a
wonderful man of his years."

Pause second.

Miss Mary, getting up the steam in her turn, asked whether Caroline had
attended the Bible Society meeting which had been held at Nunnely last
Thursday night. The negative answer which truth compelled Caroline to
utter--for last Thursday evening she had been sitting at home, reading a
novel which Robert had lent her--elicited a simultaneous expression of
surprise from the lips of the four ladies.

"We were all there," said Miss Mary--"mamma and all of us. We even
persuaded papa to go. Hannah would insist upon it. But he fell asleep
while Mr. Langweilig, the German Moravian minister, was speaking. I felt
quite ashamed, he nodded so."

"And there was Dr. Broadbent," cried Hannah--"such a beautiful speaker!
You couldn't expect it of him, for he is almost a vulgar-looking man."

"But such a dear man," interrupted Mary.

"And such a good man, such a useful man," added her mother.

"Only like a butcher in appearance," interposed the fair, proud Harriet.
"I couldn't bear to look at him. I listened with my eyes shut."

Miss Helstone felt her ignorance and incompetency. Not having seen Dr.
Broadbent, she could not give her opinion. Pause third came on. During
its continuance, Caroline was feeling at her heart's core what a
dreaming fool she was, what an unpractical life she led, how little
fitness there was in her for ordinary intercourse with the ordinary
world. She was feeling how exclusively she had attached herself to the
white cottage in the Hollow, how in the existence of one inmate of that
cottage she had pent all her universe. She was sensible that this would
not do, and that some day she would be forced to make an alteration. It
could not be said that she exactly wished to resemble the ladies before
her, but she wished to become superior to her present self, so as to
feel less scared by their dignity.

The sole m