"Not much surprised, Olive," he said. "I think Placidia's religion and Mr. Nicholls' are a little alike. Both have a great deal to do with the colour and shape of clothes, and with the places and times at which things are done, and the way in which they are said. And both are prudent persons, desirous of taking a respectable place in the world in a religious way. I should think they would agree very well." Aunt Dorothy was at once indignant and consoled. "I never quite trusted Placidia's professions," said she; "but this, I confess, goes beyond my fears. A person who never passes what he calls the altar without making obeisances such as the old heathens made to the sun and the moon, and who, not six months ago, defiled the house of God with Popish incense!" But Cousin Placidia had explanations which were quite satisfactory to herself. "She had had so many providential intimations," she said (one of the habits of Placidia that always most exasperated Roger was her way of always doing what she wished, because, she said, some one else wished it; and since she had become religious, she usually threw the responsibility on the Highest Quarter)--"intimations so plain, that she could not disregard them without disobedience. Mr. Nicholls' coming to Netherby at all was the consequence of a series of most remarkable circumstances, entirely beyond his own control. The way in which the prejudice against each other, with which they began, had by degrees changed into esteem, and then into something more, was also very remarkable. And what was most remarkable of all was, that on the very morning of the day when he proposed to her, she had--quite by chance, as it might seem, but that there was no such thing as chance--opened the Bible on the passage, 'Get thee out from thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, into a land that I will shew thee: and I will bless thee.'" "But, my dear," remarked Aunt Gretel, to whom, Aunt Dorothy being unapproachable, Placidia had made this explanation--"my dear, you are not going to leave your country, are you? and you do know the land to which you are going." "Of course," said Placidia, "there are always differences. But the application was certainly very remarkable. Mr. Nicholls quite agreed with me, when I told him of it." "No doubt, my dear, no doubt," said Aunt Gretel, retreating. "But there does seem a little difference in your opinions."