‘At present I refer to Madame De Vigne, the charming widow to whom you paid such very marked attentions at luncheon.’ ‘Ah-ha. I noticed something of that myself,’ chuckled the vicar. ‘Everybody noticed it,’ said Miss Pen emphatically. Dr Mac rubbed the end of his long nose with his review and laughed uneasily. ‘Ha, ha! Very good—very good indeed.’ ‘Come now, Mac, you can’t say that you didn’t cast sheep’s-eyes at her,’ put in the vicar blandly. ‘Let the pawky Scot deny it if he dare,’ said Miss Pen with a shake of her little fat curls. ‘Very good, my dear friends; if you choose to make yourselves pleasant at my expense, you are welcome to do so. That I admire Madame De Vigne, I am quite willing to admit. From what little I have seen of her, she seems to me a very agreeable person, and if we could trace back her ancestry, I have no doubt we should find her to be of Scottish extraction.’ ‘Oh, come, Mac, give us poor Southerners credit for something.’ ‘Well, I don’t mind admitting to you, who are one of my oldest friends, and to Miss Penelope, that I am getting tired of a bachelor’s life. I want a home and I want a wife. I have a little money judiciously invested—and—and I thought, in fact—that—that’—— ‘Don’t be bashful, Mac,’ chimed in the vicar softly. ‘You thought, in fact, that the charming widow would make you a charming companion for life,’ put in Miss Pen briskly. ‘Perhaps ay, and perhaps no,’ responded the doctor quietly. ‘All I can say is, that you may think yourself a particularly lucky fellow if you succeed in winning her,’ remarked the vicar. ‘Well, well; I know that both of you are friends of Madame De Vigne, and that she and her sister are parishioners of yours. What I should like you to do is to tell me all you know about her, and then leave me to consider what my future course ought to be.’ ‘All that we know about Madame De Vigne is very little,’ remarked the vicar. ‘Very little indeed,’ assented his sister. ‘Still, my dear’—to Miss Pen—‘I am not aware that we should be abusing any confidence in telling our friend all that there is to tell, so far as we know it?’ ‘There can be no possible harm in that. Besides, it will only be charitable to take pity on the poor man. And now, please not to interrupt me again for ten minutes at the least.’