"Yes; but there is no guarantee that he will not come back again. I cannot promise you that, on his behalf." This unflinching straightforwardness of Minnie's was a fertile source of trouble between her father and herself. It was certainly rather hard on the doctor to be forced to surrender absolutely, without any of those pleasant pretences which are equivalent to the honours of war. Fortunately--we are limiting ourselves to the doctor's point of view--fortunately at this moment his eye fell on Mrs. Bodkin, who, made exquisitely nervous by any collision between the two great forces that ruled her life, was pushing the decanter of port backwards and forwards on the slippery table, quite unconscious of that mechanical movement. "Laura, what the----mischief are you about? Do you think I want my wine shaken up like a dose of physic?" This kind of diversion of the vials of the doctor's wrath on to his wife's devoted head was no uncommon finale to any altercation in which the reverend gentleman happened not to be getting altogether the best of it. "I think," said Mrs. Bodkin, speaking very quickly, and in a low tone, as was her wont, "that very likely Mr. Powell wants to interest Minnie on behalf of Richard Gibbs." "And who, pray, if I may venture to inquire, is Richard Gibbs?" asked the doctor, in his most awful grammar-school manner, and with a sarcastic severity in his eye, as he uttered the name 'Gibbs,' and looked at Mrs. Bodkin as though he expected her to be very much ashamed of herself. "Brother of Jane, our maid. He is a groom at Pudcombe Hall, and a Wesleyan. Mr. Powell may want to recommend him, or get him a place." "What, is the fellow going to leave Pudcombe Hall, then?" "Not that I know of exactly. But it struck me it might be about Richard Gibbs that he wanted to speak, because Gibbs is a Wesleyan, you know." "I suppose he wants to meddle and make himself of consequence in some way. Egotism and conceit--rampant conceit--are the mainsprings that move such fellows as this Powell." The doctor rose majestically from the table and walked towards the door. There he paused, and turning round said to his wife, "May I request, Laura, that somebody shall take care that I get a cup of hot tea sent to me in the study? I don't think it is much to request that my tea shall not be brought to me in a tepid state!" Mrs. Bodkin had a great gift of holding her tongue on occasions. She held it now, and the doctor left the room with dignity. That evening Minnie wrote the following note:-- "MY DEAR MR. DIAMOND,--I shall be able to see Mr. Powell at one o'clock to-morrow. Should that hour not suit his convenience, perhaps he will do me the favour to let me know. "Yours very truly, "M. BODKIN."