There might have been at the table of Mr Pringle, rector of Smatterton, some diversity of political opinion, as there certainly was, seeing that Mr Kipperson was a Whig, and Zephaniah Pringle a Tory; but the corn question most cordially united them. How far these gentlemen differed in some other points, we have seen already in the matter of mechanics' institutes. On this subject Mr Kipperson's hopes were rather too sanguine; and perhaps Zephaniah the critic was too nervously susceptible, on the other hand, of apprehensions of danger to the Protestant succession; for, to his mind, the mechanics' institutes had no other ultimate object in view than transubstantiation and republicanism. Concerning gymnastics, the gentlemen also differed. Zephaniah condemned them in toto, and so did the rector of Smatterton, in spite of his whiggism. Mr Kipperson spoke very learnedly about muscles and tension, and proved that bodily exercise was essential to intellectual vigour; but he had the candour to acknowledge that he could never persuade his men to take gymnastic exercises when their day's work was over; and he attributed their ignorance of science to their neglect of gymnastics. The whole of the conversation, to which we have above alluded, did not take place in the hearing of Miss Primrose, nor indeed did one tenth part of it; for the fatigue of the journey, together with the agitation of her spirits, led her to make an early retreat from the dining-room. And the old female servant, who had known Penelope from childhood, was delighted in the opportunity of again attending upon her. Fluent was the old gentlewoman's speech, and mightily communicative was she touching the various changes which had taken place in Smatterton and Neverden since the decease of the good Dr Greendale. The kind-hearted woman also expressed herself delighted at the return of Miss Primrose to Smatterton, inasmuch as there was one person who would be so happy to see her again, and that person was Mr Robert Darnley. Penelope begged that his name might never be mentioned again in her hearing, and thereupon the poor old domestic began to fear that there was some truth in the stories that had been talked about in the village concerning Miss Primrose and Lord Spoonbill. And when the old servant found that she could not talk to her late young mistress concerning love-matters, she hastily finished her discourse and left the young lady to retire quietly to rest. CHAPTER XIV.