"I am very sorry indeed," replied Zephaniah, "that I was led into such an error." "Well, well," said Robert Darnley, "I dare say it will not be productive of any very serious consequence. Nobody who was at all acquainted with Miss Primrose could possibly believe the report." Zephaniah Pringle thought it but poor consolation to be told that he was not likely to be believed. He felt himself indeed so thoroughly humbled, that he was heartily glad to bring his conference with Robert Darnley to a close. The critic very soon said, "Good morning," and Robert Darnley returned his "Good morning" in such a tone, and with such an air, as to make Zephaniah experience the sensation of being looked down upon. It was a great refreshment and relief to the mind of the younger Darnley, to hear that Penelope and her father had arrived at Smatterton. He had never believed the calumnious tale of the loyal and religious critic, but he certainly did entertain some apprehension that assiduous attentions from a person of high rank and large estate might produce in time an effect even upon the mind of Penelope. As now Mr Primrose had come down expressly to take up his residence at Smatterton, and as this was not a time of year for such families as that of the Earl of Smatterton to take up their abode in the country, there was some ground to hope that, if the young nobleman had even made endeavours to gain the affection of Penelope, he had not succeeded. It was the blessing of Robert Darnley's mind that he had a disposition to look on the most favorable aspect of events, and it was not in his nature to yield himself up to a slight misunderstanding or misapprehension. Many miseries might be avoided if mankind possessed in general a little more of that kind of considerateness; but the evil is, that they too often take up with any idle tale, and are led by the merest and slightest apprehensions into quarrels, coldnesses, and loss of friendships: inasmuch, that a quarrel is courteously called a misunderstanding, much to the reproach indeed of the misunderstanders; for it is thereby intimated that the parties quarrel merely for the want of taking the pains to understand one another, or sometimes perhaps to understand themselves. Under the circumstances which belong to this narration, it would have been very possible for two simpletons to have made themselves completely wretched. And as some people are very glad to be miserable for the sake of the pathos and sentimentality thereof, we will tell these people, though perhaps they could find it out without our assistance, how they might make themselves truly wretched under similar circumstances.