Yes; I do indeed. I feel quite unhappy

about it.'

Then I will. This is the Fernery.'

'Not now, thank you, Mr. Summers. I must go in. Pray explain it soon to your

sister.'

CHAPTER XX.

MISS SUMMERS' HINT TAKEN.

Must I thus leave thee, Paradise?-Paradise Lost.

No wonder Norah was confounded, by being suspected of such outrageous rudeness; yet the suspicion was not so monstrous from Miss Summers' point of view. From her brother's first mention of Norah, and of her visit to them, she had made up her mind that the girl was an Irish adventuress bent upon hunting down so eligible a victim. Now, when Miss Summers got an idea-a spiteful idea more especially-into her mind, she fed it, as a mother her young, with the kind of food on which it would live and thrive, and rejected all that might disagree with it and destroy it. In other words, she would see only what confirmed

her prejudice, and would shut her eyes tightly to what made against it. Of course, we all do this more or less, but women and clergymen are more given to this mental Daltonism than men; and Miss Summers more than most women was given to it. Therefore, she would see nothing in Norah herself which contradicted her preconception; while in Norah's meeting her brother in the garden at an hour when the rest of the family were in bed, or their bedrooms, she saw confirmation of it strong as proof of Holy Writ. Now, if Norah was shameless enough to contrive this tête-à-tête, she would of course be shameless enough to resent Miss Summers' interruption of it by the vulgar sarcasm of which she was suspected. Again, if this sarcasm, in turn, was resented in a manner that ought to bring her visit to a sudden end and so upset her designs upon Reid, of course the girl would, if possible, explain it away. Accordingly Miss Summers was quite prepared for the explanation her brother was

authorised to give, and received it with a withering scorn which made an irreparable breach between them. She would take care, too, that Norah should not affect to believe that the explanation was accepted and thus prolong her visit till the obvious object of the visit was accomplished; for henceforth she would show her guest only such formal politeness as the laws of hospitality exacted as a minimum.

Now, Miss Summers' ideas of what the laws of hospitality exacted, even as a maximum, were not liberal; and it may, therefore, be imagined that her manner to Norah and her father became now insupportable.

And yet, as Norah knew, her explanation had been offered to Miss Summers; for when, at the close of the last chapter, she begged Mr. Reid Summers again to make it soon, he replied: I shall make it now, if you like ''I and on entering the house, he went at once in search of his sister. Nevertheless at and after breakfast, her politeness to Norah and her

father was crushing in its punctiliousness and elaboration. It was a legal payment in full, in presence of witnesses, of all that was due from her to the uttermost farthing as a hostess to her guests. And the debt was discharged as graciously as Miss Sally Brass served the Marchioness at the point of a fork with her two square inches of cold mutton. • Do you see this? Then don't you ever go and say that you hadn't meat here.'

Miles, who was a quick observer, saw at once that these precious balms were meant to break their heads, and he therefore asked Norah for an explanation when they got together for a few minutes before church time.

'What on earth is the matter with Miss Summers, Norah?' Then Norah explained,

and wound up with:

go away to-morrow.

Oh, father, do, do let us

You can make some ex

cuse a very slight excuse will do. They all wish us away except Mr. Reid Summers, and

VOL. II.

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