“But you are not angry with me, papa?” she murmured rather tearfully. For a moment he still stared at her in silence, unable to overcome his astonishment. Then by a great effort he recovered himself. “Oh, no,” he said, with a smack of his old causticity, “I do not see why I should be angry with you, Kate. Indeed, I may say I foretold this. I always said that young man would introduce great changes, and he has done it. He has fulfilled my words to the letter, my dear!” CHAPTER XXVI. LOOSE ENDS. Dr. Gregg was one of the first persons in the town to hear of the late rector’s engagement. His reception of the news was characteristic. “I don’t believe it!” he shrieked. “I don’t believe it! It is all rubbish! What has he got to marry upon, I should like to know?” His informant ventured to mention the living of Pocklington. “I don’t believe it!” the little doctor shrieked. “If he had got that he would see her far enough before he would marry her. Do you think I am such a fool as to believe that?” “But you see, Bonamy—the earl’s agency will be rather a lift in the world for him. And he has money.” “I don’t believe it!” shrieked Gregg again. But, alas! he did. He knew that these things were true, and when he next met Bonamy he smiled a wry smile, and tried to swallow his teeth, and grovelled, still with the native snarl curling his lips at intervals. The doctor, indeed, had to suffer a good deal of unhappiness in these days. Clode, about whom he had boasted largely, was conspicuous by his absence. Lord Dynmore’s carriage might be seen any morning in front of the Bonamy offices. And rumor said that the earl had taken a strange fancy to the young clergyman whom he had so belabored. Things seemed to Gregg and to some other people in Claversham to be horribly out of joint at this time. Among others, poor Mrs. Hammond found her brain somewhat disordered. To the curate’s unaccountable withdrawal, as to the translation of the late rector to Pocklington, she could easily reconcile herself. But to Mr. Lindo’s engagement to the lawyer’s daughter, and to the surprising intimacy between the earl and Mr. Bonamy, she could not so readily make up her mind. Why, it was reported that the earl had walked into town and taken tea at Mr. Bonamy’s house! Still, facts are stubborn things, nor was it long before Mrs. Hammond was heard to say that the lawyer’s conduct in supporting Mr. Lindo in his trouble had produced a very favorable impression on her mind, and prepared her to look upon him in a new light.