"Well, I will mention the matter to my lord, and do you talk it over with Mr. Penrose, and we will see what is to be done," said my lady. "I shall have to depend upon you a good deal in this business of the school, Vevette. You know I am no great walker. Theo has no turn for such work, and I know not how it is—" and she sighed—"Martha does manage so to set every one against her." "I am sure I shall like the work," I said. "Suppose I go down directly and consult with Mr. and Mrs. Penrose?" "Do so if you will, and ask them to come to supper to-night." When Theo heard where I was going, she said she would walk with me. We had a pleasant ramble through the wood and down the Coombe to the village, and were most hospitably received by good Mrs. Penrose, and entertained with cakes and cream. Mr. Penrose was well pleased with the idea, and said he would himself talk with Dinah and find out her qualifications. "I should like to be a parson's wife," said Theo, as we walked homeward. "You Theo!" I exclaimed, in amazement. "You of all people." "Yes, I of all people," she returned gaily. "It seems to me such a useful, pleasant, quiet life." "But I thought you did not like quiet," I said. "You always seem to enjoy company so much." "Well, so I do; and I like to dress prettily, just as I like everything to be pretty and neat; but any head is not set on such matters—no, not so much as Martha's, though she is so demure. Perhaps not so much as yours is." "You would make a good parson's wife in many ways, I am sure of that," said I. "You would make every one like you." "I know I am not so very bright," said Theo; "I cannot sing and play like you, nor read great books like Martha, nor do any other grand things. But I like to help people enjoy themselves in their own way, and to comfort them in trouble if I can." "I am sure you do," said I. "Janey Lee said the other day when her child died it was a comfort just to have you come in." "Did she? I am very glad," said Theo. "But I don't know what I did, only to sit by her, and let her weep, and by and by draw her on to talk of the poor babe and its little pretty ways. I never can preach to people in trouble. It seems somehow unfeeling to talk to them of judgments and so on. No, if I should marry a parson, I should let him do all the preaching, you may be sure of that. I should content myself with making his house pleasant, and cooking up messes for the poor, and making baby things for the lying-in women. That is my idea of a happy life." It seemed as if Theo's idea of a happy life was like enough to be fulfilled. She went on a little visit to her godmother, any lord's sister, an elderly lady who had a house near Exeter, where she maintained several young ladies of reduced circumstances but good family, giving them a suitable education, and a small dowry whenever they settled in life.