seeing them so. hard!"

Yet it will be hard, very

We had taken another turn and met again, and our eyes met (Cuthbert's and mine), but Lotty was busy with arranging her veil just then, and we crossed and passed on either way. Presently Mrs. Wilson came to the door, with an anti-macassar over her head.

"Lotty, Lotty," she called.

No answer; they were at the further end of the wall.

"Oh, it's you, Miss Darrel, wherever are the others? Do make Lotty come in, she'll catch her death of cold if she stops out any longer, where can they have got to? how thoughtless of your brother."

They came in sight then, and relieved Mrs. Wilson's mind by going in, and she declared after all she had not seen Lotty with such a colour these three months; what good the air seemed to have done her!

Lotty ran away to her room, Cuthbert dashed off to his patients, and I, poor Maggie Darrel, walked down the lane slowly enough, and lonely enough, now, thinking, thinking, thinking.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE INTERVIEW.

"MISS DARREL," said a voice at my elbow, causing me to perform a most undignified start, for I was not aware any one was near me until Mr. Coulson's grating voice disgorged those two words. "I beg your pardon, madam, for startling you. I was merely going to enquire after your health. I saw your brother just now at one of the cottages, and he begged me to let you know he could not be home to dinner, and that you are not to wait. I thanked him, and invited him to walk in and rest, for we were nearly at our own wicket. He took me at my word, rather to my surprise, for he had not called three times since we came into the parish. After sitting a few minutes, talking on indifferent subjects, while occasionally smoothing round the beaver of his

great big hat with his coat sleeve. He burst out, rather abruptly

:

"I believe, Miss Darrel, you have been (so long, I forget the time now), at Overton, and I have only seen Mr. Darrel in his pew at church six times."

"Six times, Mr. Coulson," I responded without further comment. I was determined I would not help him, for the slightest insinuation against Cuthbert, right or wrong, always roused the lion

in me.

"Six times," he repeated, with another rub round his hat," and it gives me sincere regret that so it should have been."

"So it does me," my heart echoed, most truly and sorrowfully, but I said not a word. So he rubbed away at his hat, while I had time to think what a pity it was his manner was so repulsive, and to try a little with myself, whether, like Maud Sullivan, I could not force myself to break through it. After crossing his legs, first one way and then the other, he said again, "only six times, and it really occasions me great pain,” he added, in a much more kindly and gentle tone of voice. I began to give way a little. I said to myself," Mag Darrel, do you forget how you lectured Maud Sullivan for being too stiff-necked

to

open her heart to her own minister, because he had unfortunately a harsh, disagreeable manner, and are not you doing the very same? The beam and the mote, Mag Darrel." So I relaxed a little more. "I cannot deny, Mr. Coulson," I said at length, "my dear brother, from very peculiar circumstances, has not accustomed himself to think a strict attendance at church so entirely essential as many persons do, and most of all, of course, one of your high calling, but I have some reason to hope and believe that his opinions will gradually undergo a change. Nay, I am nearly certain that that happy change ." I stopped short. I felt I was

doing what Cuthbert, above all things, would dislike, and that was, making his private sentiments and feelings a topic of discussion, with a third person, even although that person was the clergyman of the parish. It was not my own feelings, but my brother's confidence I was as it were betraying, so I hesitated, and then added, "Mr. Coulson, I am going to ask a favour of you, and that is, that you will not, for the present, mention the subject to my brother. I feel assured that if you will kindly wait a little time you will have reason to be better satisfied with him."

I could not have explained to him why I had this impression-it was from such apparently trifling circumstances, but in my own mind the conviction was so strong that I felt no doubt as to the result. He bowed in his stiff, uncomfortable manner, and said, "Very well, madam, at your wish I will for the present waive what I consider to be a duty, in the hope that your better knowledge of your brother's character may prove you to be a true prophetess. I am I am only (I do assure you) anxious for his spiritual welfare; and, as his pastor, I felt I ought no longer to postpone naming the subject, either to himself or to you. In fact," he added with a smile, "I had a hope that, through your means, I might have had a better chance of success."

I declare I began almost to like Mr. Coulson, even though he got up in a most awkward manner, and knocked over my workbox; and I really and truly shook hands with him very cordially.

I never liked to dine without Cuthbert if I could avoid it, so dinner was put off till he should make his appearance. I took a slice of cake and a glass of wine and water; and, putting on my gardening hat and apron, I set to at my flower-beds with the assistance of