What this girl of twenty said to him had much more weight than the time-honoured precepts of his father; and yet both, doubtless, had their weight. Each blow told somewhat; and the seed too had been sown upon very stony ground. They sat there some three or four minutes in silence. Bertram was looking over to Mount Moriah, imaging to himself the spot where the tables of the money-changers had been overturned, while Miss Waddington was gazing at the setting sun. She had an eye to see material beauty, and a taste to love it; but it was not given to her to look back and feel those things as to which her lover would fain have spoken to her. The temple in which Jesus had taught was nothing to her. Yes, he was her lover now, though he had never spoken to her of love, had never acknowledged to himself that he did love her--as so few men ever do acknowledge till the words that they have said make it necessary that they should ask themselves whether those words are true. They sat there for some minutes in silence, but not as lovers sit. The distance between them was safe and respectful. Bertram was stretched upon the ground, with his eyes fixed, not upon her, but on the city opposite; and she sat demurely on a rock, shading herself with her parasol. "I suppose nothing would induce you to marry a clergyman?" said he at last. "Why should you suppose that, Mr. Bertram?" "At any rate, not the parson of a country parish. I am led to suppose it by what you said to me yourself just now." "I was speaking of you, and not of myself. I say that you have a noble career open to you, and I do not look on the ordinary life of a country parson as a noble career. For myself, I do not see any nobility in store. I do not know that there is any fate more probable for myself than that of becoming a respectable vicaress." "And why may not a vicar's career be noble? Is it not as noble to have to deal with the soul as with the body?" "I judge by what I see. They are generally fond of eating, very cautious about their money, untidy in their own houses, and apt to go to sleep after dinner." George turned upon the grass, and for a moment or two ceased to look across into the city. He had not strength of character to laugh at her description and yet to be unmoved by it. He must either resent what she said, or laugh and be ruled by it. He must either tell her that she knew nothing of a clergyman's dearest hopes, or else he must yield to the contempt which her words implied. "And could you love, honour, and obey such a man as that, yourself, Miss Waddington?" he said at last. "I suppose such men do have wives who love, honour, and obey them; either who do or do not. I dare say I should do much the same as others." "You speak of my future, Miss Waddington, as though it were a subject of interest; but you seem to think nothing of your own."