stairs? Could it be that he did not recognize us?" Oh, Molly! I nearly fainted while he was speaking. I was afraid of my life he 'd look at me, and see by my changed color what was agitating me; for only think of what it was I had done,--just gone and refused fifteen thousand a year, and for the least marriageable of the two girls, since, I need n't say, that for one man that fancies Cary, there 's forty admires Mary Anne--and a baronetcy! She 'd have been my Lady, just as much as any in the peerage. I believe in my heart I could n't have kept the confession in if it had n't been that Mary Anne took my arm and led me away. Father G. followed us out of the room, and began: "Isn't it a real blessing from the Virgin on ye," said he, "that you rejected that heretic before temptation assailed ye?" But I stopped him, Molly; and at once too! I told him it was all his own stupid bigotry got us into the scrape. "What has religion to do with it?" said I. "Can't a heretic spend fifteen thousand a year; and sure if his wife can't live with him, can't she claim any-money, as they call it?" "I hope and trust," said he, "that your backsliding won't bring a judgment on ye." And so I turned away from him, Molly, for you may remark that there 's nothing as narrow-minded as a priest when he talks of worldly matters.' Though we had enough on our minds the whole day about getting places for the tournament, the thought of Morris never left my head; and I knew, besides, that I 'd never have another day's peace with K. I. as long as I lived, if he came to find out that I refused him. I thought of twenty ways to repair the breach: that I 'd write to him, or make Mary Anne write--or get James to call and see him. Then it occurred to me, if we should make out that Cary was dying for love of him, and it was to save our child that we condescended to change our mind. Mary Anne, however, overruled me in everything, saying, "Rely upon it, mamma, we 'll have him yet. If he was a very young man, there would be no chance for us, but he is five or six and thirty, and he 'll not change now! For a few months or so, he'll try to bully himself into the notion of forgetting her, but you 'll see he'll come round at last; and if he should not, then it will be quite time enough to see whether we ought to pique his jealousy or awaken his compassion." She said much more in the same strain, and brought me round completely to her own views. "Above all," said she, "don't let Father James influence you; for though it's all right and proper to consult him about the next world, he knows no more than a child about the affairs of this one." So we agreed, Molly, that we 'd just wait and see, of course keeping K. I. blind all the time to what we were doing.