"Guess he's pretty sick of being tied to an old gin like that?" "I should say! Perfectly MISERABLE. He can't think now why he let himself be induced to marry her. He just despises her." "Well, why in the name of all that's holy did he take her?" Laura cast a mysterious glance round, and lowered her voice. "Well, you see, she had LOTS of money and he had none. He was ever so poor. And she paid for him to be a clergyman." "Go on! As poor as all that?" "As poor as a church-mouse.--But, oh," she hastened to add, at the visible cooling-off of the four faces, "he comes of a MOST distinguished family. His father was a lord or a baronet or something like that, but he married a beautiful girl who hadn't a penny against his father's will and so he cut him out of his will." "I say!" "Oh, never mind the father." "Yes. Well, now he feels under an awful obligation to her, and all that sort of thing, you know." "And she drives it home, I bet. She looks a nipper." "Is always throwing it in his face." "What a ghoul!" "He'd do just ANYTHING to get rid of her, but--Girls, it's a dead secret; you must swear you won't tell." Gestures of assurance were showered on her. "Well, he's to be a Bishop some day. It's promised him." "Holy Moses!" "And I suppose he can't divorce her, because of that?" "No, of course not. He'll have to drag her with him like millstone round his neck." "And he'd twigged right enough you were gone on him?" Laura's coy smile hinted many things. "I should say so. Since the very first day in church. He said--but I don't like to tell you what he said." "You must!" "No. You'll only call me conceited." "No fear, Kiddy. Out with it!" "Well, then, he said he saw me as soon as he got in the pulpit, and he wondered ever so much who the girl was with the eyes like sloes, and the skin like ... like cream." "Snakes-alive-oh! He went it strong." "And how often were you alone with him?" "Yes, and if he had met me before he was married--but no, I can't tell any more." "Oh, don't be such an ass!" "No, I can't.--Well, I'll whisper it then ... but only to Maria," and leaning over Laura put her lips to Maria's ear. The reason for this by-stroke she could not have told: the detail she imparted did not differ substantially from those that had gone before.-- But by now she was at the end of her tether. Here, fortunately for Laura, the dinner-bell rang, and the girls had to take to their heels in order to get their books put away before grace. Throughout the meal, from their scattered seats, they exchanged looks of understanding, and their cheeks were pink. In the afternoon, Laura was again called on to prove her mettle. Her companion on the daily walk was Kate Horner. Kate had been one of the four, and did not lose this chance of beating up fresh particulars.