"What, dear?" said Mary earnestly. "That he had taken a fancy to Leo. It would have been a happy day for me to have seen her with such a protector for life." "Yes," said Mary softly. "He is a true gentleman at heart." "Why, Mary," cried the curate enthusiastically, "he never takes a penny of any of the poor folk, and he works for them like a slave. The nights I've known him pass at a sick bedside. Well, thank God, we have such a man here." "Amen," said Mary softly. "There's Leo," said the curate, as she was seen to pass down one of the paths of the garden. "Mary, my child, if that could be brought about, it would be her saving, and make me a happy man." Mary rested her hands more firmly upon her brother's shoulder, and turned to watch her sister; and, as she did so, her sweet, pensive face grew more grave and her brother's was averted, so that he could not read its secret, neither did he hear the sigh that softly rose as her eyes were suffused with tears. CHAPTER SIX. DR NORTH VISITS THE SEXTON. "Nonsense, Hartley, she is as quiet as a lamb." "I'm not so sure of that," said the curate, who looked rather anxiously at a handsome, weedy grey cob just led round to the front. His sisters were standing ready to go and make a call, and his brow wrinkled a little as he noted a peculiar fidgety expression about the mare's ears. "Why, Hartley, how foolish you are!" cried Leo. "You stop indoors reading till you are as nervous as Mrs Berens." "Eh? Yes. Well, I suppose I am," said the curate good-humouredly. "But be careful; I'm always a little uncomfortable about strange mares. Will you have an extra rein?" "Absurd!" said Leo. "There, you shall be humoured. Tell him to buckle it lower down." The girl looked very handsome and animated, and, since the scene in the wood with Tom Candlish, had been so penitent and patient that her brother had shrunk from checking her in any way. The mare had duly arrived, and, apparently bending to her brother's will, Leo had patiently seen it put in harness--degraded, as she called it--and as it went very well they were going on the present morning drive. Hartley Salis tried to hide his anxiety, and turned to chat with Mary, who looked rather pale--the consequence of a headache, as she said; and as he talked he felt more and more between the horns of a dilemma.