"Ay, poor Miss Mowbray," said Lady Penelope, lowering her voice, and shaking her head; "she has not appeared--her brother went up stairs a few minutes since, I believe, to bring her down, and so we are all left here to look at each other.--How very awkward!--But you know Clara Mowbray." "I, madam?" said Mr. Cargill, who was now sufficiently attentive; "I really--I know Miss Mowbray--that is, I knew her some years since--but your ladyship knows she has been long in bad health--uncertain health at least, and I have seen nothing of the young lady for a very long time." "I know it, my dear Mr. Cargill--I know it," continued the Lady Penelope, in the same tone of deep sympathy, "I know it; and most unhappy surely have been the circumstances that have separated her from your advice and friendly counsel.--All this I am aware of--and to say truth, it has been chiefly on poor Clara's account that I have been giving you the trouble of fixing an acquaintance upon you.--You and I together, Mr. Cargill, might do wonders to cure her unhappy state of mind--I am sure we might--that is, if you could bring your mind to repose absolute confidence in me." "Has Miss Mowbray desired your ladyship to converse with me upon any subject which interests her?" said the clergyman, with more cautious shrewdness than Lady Penelope had suspected him of possessing. "I will in that case be happy to hear the nature of her communication; and whatever my poor services can perform, your ladyship may command them." "I--I--I cannot just assert," said her ladyship with hesitation, "that I have Miss Mowbray's direct instructions to speak to you, Mr. Cargill, upon the present subject. But my affection for the dear girl is so very great--and then, you know, the inconveniences which may arise from this match." "From which match, Lady Penelope?" said Mr. Cargill. "Nay, now, Mr. Cargill, you really carry the privilege of Scotland too far--I have not put a single question to you, but what you have answered by another--let us converse intelligibly for five minutes, if you can but condescend so far." "For any length of time which your ladyship may please to command," said Mr. Cargill, "provided the subject regard your ladyship's own affairs or mine,--could I suppose these last for a moment likely to interest you." "Out upon you," said the lady, laughing affectedly; "you should really have been a Catholic priest instead of a Presbyterian. What an invaluable father confessor have the fair sex lost in you, Mr. Cargill, and how dexterously you would have evaded any cross-examinations which might have committed your penitents!" "Your ladyship's raillery is far too severe for me to withstand or reply to," said Mr. Cargill, bowing with more ease than her ladyship expected; and, retiring gently backward, he extricated himself from a conversation which he began to find somewhat embarrassing.